What happened? More like what didn't happen? She didn't even know how to put in to words all of the things running through her head.
Running his hand up and down her back he hated that she couldn't put in to words exactly what had happened. "Was it really that bad? Talk to me please Steph, I'm here for you."
Reluctantly pulling out of his arms she grabbed hold of his hand and held it tightly instead not wanting him to go off the deep end with what she was about to say. "Dad saw us on Monday."
"I know he did, I still want to punch him for the way he was talking to you because of it. What does that have to do with anything?"
"Yeah no, it's not that. Dad saw us kissing on Monday, that is why he has been so damn weird all week."
"Oh." The new found knowledge that her Dad had seen them made him incredibly nervous. "So do I still have a job?"
"Of course, I think. I kind of didn't actually have a proper conversation with my Father as I stormed out because he called me unprofessional and told me my actions reflect badly on him as a boss and a Father."
This conversation was not something they could have right now with the girls not far away and just generally excited about him being there. "We can't do this right now so hopefully tomorrow we can have the conversation and we can strategise about dealing with him so I think for tonight we should relax and spend some time with our family."
Stephanie was unable to verbalise how relieved she was right now as she didn't want to deal with it anyway. "Thank you. Are you still staying for pizza and the sleepover?"
"Wait what? What do you mean stay for pizza and the sleepover? I thought it was just the pizza I'd been wishfully thinking about?"
She had been thinking about it since Wednesday and after today with her Dad and how much deep in her soul she was desperate for his touch she could not let him go, not with him being so close right now. "I've been thinking about it and no, I would really like you to stay all night if you want to."
He would love to stay the night and watch a movie and just stay with his family and not have to leave so if she was offering it he was taking it. "I need to go home and grab some stuff before I do, I mean I wasn't intending to be here when you got home so the snacks I picked up aren't here so I could go home and grab them and a change of clothes and come straight back whilst you settle the girls. Granted that idea makes me feel like a terrible Father by leaving all of the work to you."
Rolling her eyes she pointed to the door. "Get your sweet butt out of the door and get what you need so that you can come back to me. I really don't care about doing most of the work or whatever it is you see it as, it'll probably do me good to distract myself."
He made sure that the girls weren't in the doorway and then he leaned forward and kissed her softly. "Okay okay, my sweet butt is taking itself out of the door." Walking to the door he called out 'girls I'm going' before he headed out of the door before they had chance to charge at him.
The girls came running towards the front door disappointed to see that he had already left. "Where'd Daddy go?"
Not wanting to make the next hour a living nightmare she played it off casually. "You're spending all day tomorrow with him, are you seriously mad he has left?"
Not able to judge if they pushed this she would punish them by taking away the movie they chose to drop the subject. "So what's for dinner?"
"Pizza, after. First you're going to have a bath and get in to your pyjamas and then we are going to come back downstairs and whilst you choose the movie I will order the pizza. Deal?"
Vaughn looked at her Mom incredulously. "Pizza and a movie? We never get both lately."
"What can I say? I don't feel like cooking after dealing with your Grandpa."
Quickly heading for the stairs Murphy didn't want to get grounded because she knew what she was about to say was wrong. "I wouldn't want to cook after being with Grandpa, he's hard work."
It was hard for Stephanie to scold her daughter as it was very true, her Dad was hard work for everybody. "But you love Grandpa anyway."
"Yup. Just like Rory, she's hard work too but I still love her."
This was not descending in to chaos and arguments, not tonight. "I am well aware that siblings can feel like that but tonight you are not arguing about it because I am not being held responsible for you not being ready so get upstairs or I will find you chores to do whilst the rest of us watch a movie."
Squealing was heard as they fought to be the first up the stairs as none of them liked doing chores.
Forty five minutes later and the girls were currently trying to decide what movie to watch whilst Stephanie arranged the blankets on the floor so everybody had at least one when the doorbell rang, having already received a text from Paul on his return as they had agreed on the pizza he was to pick up she didn't move from her spot. "That's probably the pizza. Do you girls want to go and get it and I will be right behind you."
They never got the chance to open the door so Aurora was fast to run to the door and take charge. "I'm oldest so I've got this."
Murphy and Vaughn knew better than to argue with their older sister because they always got in trouble when they did.
Swinging the door open Aurora stood there stunned to see her Dad. "You're not the pizza delivery man."
"No I'm not but I do have pizza . . . and snacks."
Vaughn was excited to see her Dad again so hearing he had pizza and snacks made her excited so she was quick to push through her sisters and grab hold of his arm. "Come on, we've got to get it set up for the movie."
"But what if Mom doesn't want him to stay?"
"What if your Mom invited him? Leave that poor man alone and let him come inside as I want my pizza."
"I was trying Mommy." Pulling her Dad through her sisters she led him to the kitchen to see what snacks he got.
Placing the pizza on the top Paul pulled out a bottle of soda and placed it on the top before he tipped out the snacks.
The size of bag that he had with him initially made Stephanie nervous as she wasn't sure she wanted the girls to be confronted with the potential of him staying, granted he wasn't exactly clued in to everything that was going on in her head and her desire to have him stay the night but people have been known to be presumptuous before . . . and now she was fretting over nothing because he had just tipped out chips, chocolate and sweets that were the favourites of all of them all over the top. "I will get a couple of bowls out." Once she had the bowls and had tipped the food in to them she passed each girl a bowl. "Carefully take those in to the lounge and get comfortable whilst we sort the drinks out and bring those in."
He waited until the girls were out of the room before he grabbed his wife and pulled her closer to him. "Now this is what I was looking forward to."
Giggling she allowed herself to be pulled against his chest and she rested her head on it. "We can't."
Despite her saying that they couldn't he noticed that she didn't pull away from him at all however he took note and only held her close for a minute before he stepped back. "Thank you for letting me join you for tonight, I really appreciate it."
"Thank you for joining tonight, I need the distraction." Walking around the counter she began pulling glasses from the cupboard. "Would you like some soda?"
"No thanks, I still prefer not to drink soda and live off water and coffee."
Rolling her eyes before pouring four glasses of soda she didn't need to be reminded that his body was a temple. "Well at least I have gone for one glass of soda and not an entire bottle of wine which is what I actually want to have. Can I have a bottle of water too please?"
"No problem." Getting a second bottle out of the fridge he wasn't sure whether to be happy that she wasn't going for the wine or disappointed that she felt like she actually needed the wine.
Once she had the drinks she carefully picked them all up and carried them through to the lounge and forced a smile. "So what is the movie?"
Setting up the DVD in the machine she turned to see none of the girls sat down. "Are you planning to watch it stood up?"
Murphy put her hands on her hips as she stared at her Mom. "Don't be silly, of course we're going to lie down but you and Daddy need to sit first."
Exchanging a look with her estranged husband she allowed herself to be pulled to the middle of the blankets. "I take it this is my place?"
"Yes it is and Vaughny will sit next to you and Daddy will sit next to her and me and Rory will sit everywhere."
"Everywhere huh? It seems you've got this all figured out so we will just go with it." Taking a seat on the floor she quickly pulled her blanket up around her before Vaughn flopped down beside her and cuddled in to her side. "Thank you Mommy."
Paul took the pizza off the side before he sat down and pulled the blanket over his legs with one hand and then placed the pizza on his leg and flipped open the lid. "Right, pizza is ready, we have the snacks and the drinks so time to start the movie."
Murphy and Aurora both sat at their parent's feet and reached for some pizza as Stephanie started the movie.
Just over halfway through the movie and Vaughn fell asleep but the older two were still wide awake at the end so she let them put in another movie but made them snuggle down.
Once the girls were snuggled down Paul looked at his wife and wondered if she would appreciate him being affectionate. He reached across and gently put his hand on her shoulder testing the waters to see the reaction he would get from it.
Feeling the hand on her shoulder she was distracted from the movie and turned to look at him and smiled. Kissing his hand she wished she could be closer to him but as she had to settle for this she simply raised her hand and rested it over his.
The fact that his wife hadn't brushed him off gave him hope but he didn't want to think about it too much so simply settled for just sitting there with his hand on her shoulder with hers covering his whilst the girls were awake. Once he was sure that the girls were asleep as the movie was over and they hadn't moved he got up and carefully climbed over them to take the disk out of the machine. "I'm going to clean up a little a sec." Putting the case on the side he turned and pulled the blanket up over his middle daughter so she kept warm overnight before he grabbed the empty pizza box and what bowls he could carry and took them out to the kitchen before he rejoined his wife in the lounge. "Anything else I can do before we settle down? I mean clearly you're stuck down here tonight as there is no way you'll move Vaughn and not wake her which would then be more hassle than we care for."
Stifling a laugh she shook her head at him, despite his good point she wasn't going to let him win. "Shut up and settle down."
Giving each of his daughter's a kiss in their sleep he pressed a cheeky kiss to Stephanie's cheek. "Night Steph, thank you for letting me stay."
"It's nothing Paul, it really isn't." Somehow managing to get her daughter to allow her to move in to a more comfortable position to sleep in she lay there and tried to relax.
The next morning Paul awoke to his shoulder being poked bringing him out of his sleep. Opening his eyes to slits he was concerned when he saw his middle daughter there looking sheepish. "What's wrong Princess?"
"I was thirsty; I got a glass of water and dropped it getting water everywhere. Mom is going to kill me when she wakes up."
Throwing off his blanket he got to his feet and allowed his daughter to pull him to the kitchen but he was quick to pick her up off her feet before they stepped foot in the kitchen and sat her at the island. "Sit there please and don't get off so I can tidy up and not worry about you getting cut by the glass."
"But I used Vaughny's cup that doesn't break as it's all I could reach."
Despite her saying that he didn't want to take the risk. "I'd still prefer you to stay there until I'm all cleaned up thanks."
Knelt on the floor cleaning up the water he groaned when he heard footsteps behind him. "Stay where you are and do not come any closer."
"But Daaaaad." Aurora was thirsty and wanted a drink. "I didn't make a mess so why am I being punished?"
Turning his head to look at his eldest he didn't like the idea of her thinking that she was being punished. "I'm not punishing you or your sister; I am protecting you from slipping or getting hurt. I am nearly finished so you can have your drink in a minute."
"Okay." Moving to sit next to her sister she didn't want to get shouted at for disobeying.
Two minutes later he was done cleaning up so stood up and got both daughters a glass of water. "What would you like for your breakfast?"
Whilst in the middle of making pancakes for breakfast Stephanie woke up so took over allowing him to go for a shower as she liked this time with her daughters.
Once everybody had showered and dressed after breakfast Paul was discussing plans for the day in the lounge with the girls when the doorbell rang so Stephanie left them with their conversation to go and answer it finding a strange woman on the other side. "Hello?"
"Hi. My name is Kacey and I am looking for Paul."
Eyeing this strange woman suspiciously she didn't know her and she didn't trust her but she had no reason to turn her away. "Fine." Turning around she called for her estranged husband but stayed stood at the door although she didn't engage with the other woman, there was just something about her that she did not trust.
Hearing his name called by his wife Paul left the girls discussing the plans for the day and went to find her. He exited the lounge and spotted her still at the door. "What do you want Steph?"
"Hi Paul."
He froze when he heard the voice; nothing on earth could have prepared him for the prospect of hearing her voice again, especially not in front of his wife. "What the hell are you doing here? It is called a Restraining Order for a reason."
Stephanie could only stand there and look back and forth between the two of them not having any idea what Paul was talking about and what he could possibly mean.
"Oh come on Paul. What did you expect me to do when you wouldn't answer my calls?"
"Take the hint that I'm done with you? Seriously Kacey are you stupid?"
The feeling she got from the other woman was that she didn't know everything so she was going to make the most of it and was going to manipulate the situation to suit her. "That isn't what you were saying on the phone the other day."
There was only so much that she could stand there and listen to and remain refrained and she had just hit her limit because although she didn't trust him fully she knew when she was being played by someone. Pulling her arm back she didn't think what she as doing and just punched her.
Stumbling back Kacey clutched at her nose. "What the hell are you doing you crazy bitch. No wonder he has looked elsewhere for happiness."
He knew his wife and he also knew the McMahon temper which could cause this to descend in to utter chaos so he wrapped his arm around her waist holding her tight to him and reached to slam the front door shut. "She isn't worth it, ignore her."
So much anger was coursing through her veins that she wasn't focussed on her husband; she was focussed on getting to the other woman and making her pay for what she had just said. "Get off me, let me get to her."
Refusing to let go he kept his tight grip. "Stop it; think of the girls, they need you right now."
"Why do they need me? You're taking them out." She didn't even know why she went to that, there were so many things in between that she should have thought about but instead she went straight to that.
There was no way in hell he was letting her stay alone now, not after that visit because there was no saying that she wasn't going to come back a second time or ramp up her crazy. "Actually, I was kind of thinking that it would be really fun if we all went out together. What do you think?"
It was thoughtful but she wasn't sure that she actually wanted to put herself through that. "I can't take your time with the girls away from you."
"I know and you're not, I would actually really like to do this together, as a family." He took hold of her hands making sure to check that she hadn't done any damage to her hand when she had punched Kacey, once he was satisfied that her hands were fine he pulled her towards the lounge. "So I was thinking that your Mom could join us today. What do you say?"
The squeals of delight from the girls only reaffirmed that he was making the right decision in Paul's mind.
With the girls all excited there was no way that Stephanie could say no now and maybe it would be good for her to get out and about and be far away from the house for a few hours. "That is settled then, I am coming with you."
It didn't take much persuasion to get the girls to go and get ready as neither of the adults wanted to be there right now.
As soon as everybody was ready they headed for the front door but they were stopped in their tracks because as soon as they opened the door they were faced with two Police Officers. "Can we help you?"
"We hope that you can. We are looking to speak with the wife of Paul Levesque."
Being referred to as 'the wife of Paul Levesque' pissed her off but she was also annoyed that they were interrupting her unexpected time with her family. "That would be me. What can I do for you?"
"There has been a report of an assault and we are here to investigate it."