Chapter 20

We were in Boston. Raw. The first night that Paul's contract was active.

Mark was in a bad mood and wouldn't tell me why. I couldn't tell if he was just tense about it all or if something had happened between him and the whale in the grass. I didn't want to ask though, for fear of him exploding in anger. I didn't want that.

The four of us stayed close, sharing a locker room. Claudette I don't think left Amber s arms except for when she handed her over to me so that she could get dressed. I felt really sorry for her. Because unlike her, I knew that even though Paul could threat he couldn't really do anything. And with her it was a  keep that bastard away from my daughter  attitude and she didn't know him well enough to know that he wouldn't do anything. I knew he wouldn't do anything. Because that's Paul. He says things and taunts but never does anything. He gets other people to do it for him.

But Mark was definitely moody. And no wisecracks or jokes could lift that like they usually did.

And then the most dangerous part of the night, our match. Mark and I were supposed to fight, and Amber was to come to the ring with me. Neither of us wanted Claudette to come down to the ring with us, either, and while we were running around backstage trying to find a babysitter that could fend off Paul and his cellulite we ran into a couple who we didn't quite recognize. The guy reached out to shake my hand.

"I'm Scott,"  he said coolly. "I just got signed. You can call me Raven. Everyone else does."

We shook hands. "I'm Kane. This is my wife Amber and our daughter Claudette."

He nodded his head. The woman with him stepped forward. She was pretty and girlish, with short green hair and cat like eyes. I couldn't tell if they were contacts or not. And she wore an ICP shirt. "I'm Saphrin. Girlfriend. Hi."

I shook her hand as well and then she and Amber shook. She had a cute grin on her face as she said, "Hiya Claudette!" 

Amber looked to me with a questioning but then shook it off and looked to them. "Listen we have a match, do you mind watching Claudette for us for a few minutes?"

Saphrin made a bit of a squeak. "Oh can we?? She s so cute!"

Amber now laughed. "Yeah but can you also watch Jake? They re in our room right over there,  she made some gesture to our dressing room,  he's an absolute angel I swear he won t be any trouble!"

"Is he as cute as Claudette?" Saphrin asked laughingly, taking Claudette gently from Amber. Raven just looked on with a grin. Amber laughed now.

"Yeah. Just adorable. He'll surprise you."

"Well we have to go," I said quickly, and took Amber's hand and pulled her away. I called back to Raven and Saphrin, "Hey stay away from fat guys with whiny voices, okay?"

Raven gave me a thumbs-up and we kept walking, over to where we had to come out. As soon as we were out of site we simply burst into laughter, to the confusion of Mark. But he didn't laugh. I didn't know what his problem was. But anyway everything went as planned as he went out and then we came out and had the match. Mark was being a bit rough, which I could handle, but I couldn't handle his coldness. I meant to talk to him afterwards but he stormed off before I could get a word in and didn't come back to the room right away. Amber and I stood there for a moment talking until we remember Raven and Saphrin and we started laughing and ran back to the room.

It was truly hilarious.

Saphrin was sitting on the floor, giggling. In her arms she held both Claudette and Jake, commenting on how cute they both were. On the other side of the room Raven stood on a chair, looking with horror at the duck.

"Stop teasing me just get it away!" he cried. Like a girl he cried. Great for a first impression. Saphrin could only laugh at him.

"Scott would you calm down it s just a duckie. A duckie!!"

"Eww it s a... bird,  he said, a sob hanging in his voice.  "Stop it please!! And don't call me Scott!! My name is Raven! You know that, Debby!!"

Saphrin scowled. Amber laughed and walked over to him. "You okay?"

He looked like he wanted to cry and pulled her so that she was shielding him from Jake. "Please Amber help me!"

Amber laughed nearly hysterically. Raven pouted. Saphrin still giggled as she played with Jake and Claudette. I reached down and took Claudette from her. I looked from her to Raven and then back. Total chaos.

"Say..." I said, "would you like to borrow Jake for a bit? You guys could be travel buddies..."

Raven let out a cry. Horror came over his face. Amber looked at me disapprovingly as if to tell me that I was evil. Saphrin looked as if she'd been touched by Heaven. "Really? Oh Kane I would love that!!"

"Yeah sure we'll see him tomorrow in Toronto."

She leapt up from where she said and went up on her toes to give me a kiss on the cheek before bouncing out of the room. Raven now was trembling, and he closed his eyes, sighing, before grabbing onto Amber's shoulder for support as he stepped down off the chair and then fell down into it. Amber and I sat down on either side of him as he caught his breath.

"What s wrong, dude?" I asked him. He shook his head, pushing a hand through his hair.

"I... I can t stand birds..." he said. He looked at me and then at Amber. "When I was little I got attacked by a swan. My dad brought me fishing for the first time and when I flung out the hook I accidentally got it stuck on a swan... and I started reeling it in and hoped that it would unhook itself but it didn't and was making strange noises and then it started attacking me! I didn't mean to catch it on my fishing pole, honest, but it didn't know that! It bit me! Oh I was so humiliated I was lying a puddle of my own blood and lake water. And my shoes fell off! It was terrible!  And... and... and-"

Amber placed a calm hand on his back. "Shh... shh Raven, calm down."

He quickly turned and threw his arms around her, hugging her and burying his face in her chest and crying. "It was so scary!!" he cried. Even though I was still wearing my mask I covered my mouth with my hand anyway, trying for my life not to laugh at the fool. Amber looked up at me, her eyes wide, biting her bottom lip. I knew that she was trying not to laugh also. But Raven didn't find this amusing at all. He was in terror from the memory.

After a few moments her let go of her and wiped his eyes. He looked confused and scared as he stood up and began to pace back and forth in the room. "What am I gonna do? Saph has Jake and I can t go back because he'll attack me... oh bother..."

Amber smiled. "Raven just calm yourself. Jake would never hurt you. Just be nice to him and he'll be nice back. It's simple. He isn't a swan, dear, he's a duck."

He swallowed and nodded his head reluctantly. I couldn't help but to think of a little kid. He began to walk away. As he reached to door I cleared my throat. "Hey... isn't a raven a bird?"

Now he grinned, and didn't look like a child. More like a man. "Dude... weak..."

As he left the room Amber and I could only stare at each other.

 "Kane..."  she said with a bit of a frown. "Can you tell me if that really just happened?"

"Yeah it really happened." We both laughed, extremely amused as well as content with our new friends. She sighed and took Claudette from me.

"I'm gonna go get something to eat. Want anything?"

 "Uhh... I'll  be there in a few minutes just let me shower, okay?"

"Sure."

She left the room and I walked into the bathroom, removing my clothes so that I could shower. When I finished I changed into normal clothes and began to towel off my hair. When I reached to door to leave I was almost hit in the face as it flew open.

"What the fuck?" I said aloud. Mark stood there, steam nearly coming out of his ears.

"Prick!" he yelled.

"What?"  I backed away from him, staring cautiously as he glared at me.

"What's this about you trying to get me fired?"

"Mark what the hell are you talking about?"

"Paul! He told me that you were talking to Vince about getting me fired! It makes sense, doesn't it? That Vince could do that. Why shouldn't he? He s never been really cool with me. And you think that you can get away with this? What the fuck, man?"

"Dude... you can t think that's true, can you? I mean why the hell would I do something that stupid? And why the hell would you believe Paul?"

"Well he sounds a helluva lot more convincing than you do!"

"Mark listen to me,  I said calmly, fighting back the anger in me.  This is what Paul wants. He wants us to be angry. Don't even talk to him. He made that up to get you pissed at me."

"Oh shut up, Kane. What the hell would you know?"

This made me furious. I began screaming at him. "Mark you're the one who left when you were old enough! You re the one who could leave at all! I was with Paul for a long time. He made me live in the fucking basement! I was tortured! Don't give me this shit as if you don't know what I'm talking about! He hurt you too, Mark! You were there! Don't listen to him now, he hasn't changed at all!"

"But you have! Look at you, Kane! You have a fucking wife and a daughter... all fat and happy like nothing can touch you! You think you're better than I am? What the hell? So now you want me fired! Who the fuck dropped the house on your sister? And yeah, I was there! You hated me then! How do I know that you don't hate me now? That you aren't doing this just to use my trust to get me fired? You want me to suffer for the fire, don't you, you fuckin' vindictive prick!"

I almost laughed, anger still in me but not enough to keep me from laughing. "Mark calm down, would you? This is-"

Before I could finish I felt a pain in my face and realized that he'd punched me. And then as I was realizing that he shoved me. I fell backwards and landed on my ass. He stood over me, glaring at me.  "Now who s fuckin' laughing?"  he hissed, picked up his bag, and stormed away.