Choices


Disclaimer : You know the drill by now, I own no one they own themselves, and Vince owns the WWF/WWE.


A/N : Sorry it took so long for me to update but I've been sick and I've had a lot of homework and test to study for. Hope you find this chapter worth the wait though...............


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As Paul walked to the door Joanie was still looking at the floor because she didn't want him to see the tears in her eyes at the lie she had just told him, but when she heard him whisper, 'you bitch' with so much emotion in his voice, she did look up, but it was already too late, he was gone. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that, that she had actually heard tears in Paul's voice, but how could that be? He was the one who was going to suggest she have an abortion, to solve their little problem, she just beat him to the punch first, didn't she. Starting to have doubts about the lie she told Paul, Joanie ran out the door, to find him and tell him the truth, but she was once again too late, he had already got in his car and left. Not having any idea where he might be staying, Joanie tried Paul's cell, but it was turned off, and she didn't know what to say, so she just hung up without leaving a message.


After Paul left Joanie's house he turned off his cell because he couldn't deal with anyone's bullshit right now, and went straight to the nearest liquor store and bought a couple of bottles of Jack Daniels, and Jim Bean, then he went back to his room and proceeded to get completely hammered. He drank so he could forget. Forget the pain of knowing there was not going to be a baby, forget that he and Joanie were really through, and that he had no one to blame for that, but himself. But, no matter how much he drank the pain wouldn't go away and he couldn't forget, in fact it just made him remember more. He remembered all the good times him and Joanie had together and he also remembered the look on Joanie's face when she caught him and Stephanie in his locker room. He also remembered how happy he was, when he thought him and Joanie were going to have a baby, and could start over again. He drank until he passed out, only then did the pain and the memories go away, but they were still there when he woke up the next morning.


Paul slept most of the next day, and when he did awaken it was only to go buy another couple of bottles of Jack and Jim, his two new best friends, and get hammered again, anything to make the pain and memories go away. After spending two days in Iowa, getting completely smashed, Paul decided the best thing for him to do was to go back to work. At least at work he could loose himself in the wrestling and for a few minutes at least forget all about what might have been. And, at least at work nobody knew about the almost baby, so they couldn't ask him any questions, no one at least but Vince. He hadn't decided what he would tell Vince if he asked, the truth or a lie, he would decide when and if the time came that he asked. Paul then left Iowa and flew up to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to join the rest of the WWF crew. When he got there, he checked into the hotel and went to the arena to see if he could be used on that nights show. He would do anything they asked him too, because it would keep his mind occupied. Initially, since no one knew he would be there, nothing was planned for him, but once the writers knew he wanted to work, they went ahead and booked him and Steve in a tag team title match against the Canadian Chris's, Beniot and Irvine. After meeting with the other 3 men to discuss the match, Paul then went to catering to get something to eat.


"Well, well, well, look what the cat finally drug back to work," he heard a familiar whiny voice say.

"Don't start with me now, Steph. I'm not in the mood," Paul answered back.

"Why? Did Joanie refuse to take your sorry ass back?" She taunted. Paul's jaw clenched at the mention of Joanie's name and his eyes took on a sad look.

"The reason I left had nothing to do with Joanie," he lied. "I told you that I needed some time to think, and I found that I couldn't do that here. So I decided to go away for a while and now I'm back. Do you have a problem with that?"

"No," she shook her head. "So did you find the answers to the questions you were thinking about?" She asked, really wanting to know if he had come to a decision about their relationship. But, before he could answer her, her father came into catering and said he wanted to talk to Paul in his office about something.


Following Vince to his office, Paul knew what he wanted to talk to him about. Once they were seated comfortably in the office with the door firmly locked and closed, Vince wasted no time asking Paul about Joanie and the baby.


"So Paul, let me the first to congratulate you on becoming a father, and ask how Joanie and the baby are doing. Where are they by the way? I thought for sure Joanie would have come with you so she could visit friends. I know she won't be able to wrestle for a while, but I would still love for her to be involved in the storylines, we could even pair you guys back together and work the pregnancy in. What do you think?" The whole time Vince had been talking, he wasn't paying attention to Paul, Vince did this when he got on a tangent about something. But, once he finished talking he noticed that Paul hadn't said anything and he turned to see him sitting there with a stony look on his face. "Paul, what's wrong? If you don't like that idea we can do something....."


"There is no baby, Vince. It was a false alarm," he lied. Not wanting Vince to know the "truth" and possibly think bad about Joanie. No matter how much Paul wanted to hate Joanie for making the decision to end the pregnancy on her own, he couldn't. Even though he was devastated at the lose of the baby, he could see why she did it. She had just found out that her live-in long time boyfriend was cheating on her with the one person whom he said he couldn't stand and he was sure the last thing she wanted was to have a baby on her own


"Paul, I'm so sorry. I really don't know what to say. How are you? How is Joanie?"

"I'm ok, and so is Joanie. It took a while for it to sink in, but it's for the best, really. I mean Joanie and I are broken up and it would have been really hard to raise a kid. We're both gone so much."

"If you say so."

Feeling really uncomfortable and not wanting to talk about everything, Paul made up an excuse and left the room. He returned to his locker room and prepared for his match. Unfortunately, Stephanie would have to accompany him to ringside, since they were still "married" on t.v.. The match was scheduled to be the main event for Raw. Half way into the show, Paul got together with Steve and the two Chrises one more time to go over the match. Once everything was worked out to everyone's satisfaction, Paul went to get into "game" mode. The match was going great, the crowd was really into it and then disaster struck. As Steve was getting beat in the middle of the ring, Paul ran to make the save and as he planted his left leg, he felt something tear. Not knowing the severity of the injury he continued the match, even taking Chris's finishing move, the walls of Jericho, on the announcers table. After the match, which him and Steve lost, he couldn't even stand, the pain was so great, that the trainers and the ref had to practically carry him to the back. Once in the back, the doctor on staff checked him out and decided he needn't to go to the hospital for an MRI. The results of the MRI weren't good. They showed that part of Paul's hamstring had ripped away from the bone entirely and would require immediate surgery. So two days later Paul flew down to BellSouth Medical facility in Birmingham, Alabama and met with Dr. James Andrew, who would do his surgery. He described the procedure and that Paul would be out at least 6 months. He would also have to stay in Birmingham, the first couple of months for rehab. Paul scheduled the surgery for a few days later, so that he could go home and get some things together.


Meanwhile, Joanie was still feeling guilty for lying to Paul, and wanted to tell him the truth. But every time she tried his cell, she would get his voice mail, and this was something she didn't want to tell him in a message. Joanie finally decided to write him a letter, she hadn't been watching wrestling so she didn't know that he was hurt. She figured that by writing him a letter and telling him the truth, he could decide what he wanted to do about the baby. He could decide to be a part of the baby's life or he could just forget and move on with his life. She also sent for her things from her and Paul's old house, because no matter what Paul decided, he was with Stephanie now, or so she thought, and she needed to move on and build a new life for herself. She didn't know if she would stay in Iowa, but it was a good place for now.


Paul didn't want to go inside, when he reached his and Joanie's house, because he knew that everything inside would just remind him of what he had lost. Bracing himself to enter the house, Paul was not prepared for what he saw when he got inside. All of Joanie's things were gone. Everywhere he looked in all the rooms, her things were packed up and gone. "Damn it," he yelled as tears started to fall from his eyes. He then picked up a coffee cup, Joanie had given him, and threw it against the wall. This was it, it was really final. With all her things being gone he couldn't even pretend that they still had a chance. After calming himself down, Paul went to check the mail. He didn't notice the letter from Joanie at first, but when he did, his first gut instinct was to rip it up and through it away, but he decided against that. He didn't open it though. He assumed it was a letter letting him know that she was taking all her stuff and that she didn't want anything to do with him anymore, and he really didn't feel like dealing with that right now, so he put the letter away, intended to read it at a later date. Plus, it was the only item of Joanie's that he had left to hold onto.


A few days later Paul flew back to Birmingham and had the surgery, it lasted a couple of hours and was filmed for WWF television. Stephanie was also there, acting like the concerned "wife" in front of the camera's. Initially, Paul refused to have anything to do with her, but she was persistent and finally he relented. He was stuck in Birmingham by himself for rehab and he got pretty lonely, he also started to get depressed. The WCW invasion was on and this was a storyline that Paul had wanted to be involved in, but couldn't because of his injury. So when Stephanie had started to show up on weekends and her days off, Paul was so grateful for the company, that he decided to start seeing her again. Which of course made Stephanie very happy. Even though they were seeing each other again, Paul still felt as if a part of him was missing, he knew what that part was, Joanie, but refused to acknowledge it, well most of the time anyways. He was determined to move ahead with his life, like Joanie had obviously done, because she never tried to write or call him again. After a few months Paul was cleared to return home and start rehab there, but he opted to stay in Birmingham. It was a couple of months later, in the beginning of November that him and Stephanie decided to take a weekend getaway to Nashville, Tennessee. On Saturday Paul and Stephanie decided to try this Mexican restaurant called Rosie's that one of the staff at the hotel had told them about. When they got there it was really crowed, but they eventually managed to get a table. When they finished and were getting ready to leave, Stephanie excused herself and went to the restroom to wash up, someone coming in the door, caught Paul's eyes.


"No it can't be," he whispered.


When Joanie never heard anything back from Paul, she figured he most have decided to just forget about her and the babies. That's right babies. Joanie had went to the doctor for her 4 month check-up and when the doctor did an ultrasound, she discovered that she was carrying twins. When the doctor asked her if she wanted to know the sex of the twins she said, 'no'. The only thing she wanted to know, was if they were identical or fraternal. She found out they were fraternal. She was so happy with the news that she called her sister. Her sister was as equally ecstatic, and finally managed to convince Joanie to move to Nashville, Tennessee, with her. That way she would have someone to help her with the babies. So Joanie made the move to Nashville, in September. She rented a really nice 5 bedroom, 5 bath house and settled into a comfortable routine. She even found a really good doctor who specialized in multiple birth labors. Joanie and her sister had a standing lunch date every Saturday at Rosie's, a really good Mexican restaurant, but one Saturday in the beginning of November, Joanie wasn't feeling to well. She had been experiencing false contractions, or what the doctor called Braxton Hicks contractions, all day. The doctor had assured her this was routine for women giving birth to multiples, but if they persisted to make an appoint for Monday so he could check her out. Not wanting to disappoint her sister and suddenly feeling very hungry, Joanie decided to go after all. When she reached the restaurant, she noticed how crowded it was. Before she had the chance to remove her jacket, one of the waitresses came over and told her that her sister had called and said she wouldn't be able to make it. Since it was so crowded, Joanie decided not to stay, but to just get something to go. It was after she had placed her order and was waiting that she felt all the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. When she looked up to see what could have caused this sensation, she found herself staring into the one pair of blue eyes, she thought she would never see again. After staring at Paul, for what seemed like forever, she finally tore her eyes away and noticed that he was alone and starting to come her way. Not wanting to talk to him she turned to leave, but found her way blocked by new people coming into eat. So she had no choice but to turn and face him.


"Paul," she said when he reached her side.

"Joanie," he said back. "How are you?"

"Good, and yourself?" She asked stiltedly. Not wanting to have this conversation. It still hurt after all this time. Not knowing that Paul still didn't know about the pregnancy, she was waiting for Paul to say something about the pregnancy. Even though he might choose to ignore it, she thought he would at least ask something about it. Not that you could tell she was pregnant just by looking at her. She had on really baggy overalls that hid her stomach, not to mention her big coat.

"I'm good," was is only reply.

After a few moments of awkward silence, they both spoke at the same time. "What are doing here?" They both asked at the same time.


"I live here now," Joanie replied. "With my sister. And you?"

"I'm here on vacation," but before he could say who with, Joanie heard the high pitch whiney voice of Stephanie.

"Paul, where did you go?" She was calling out. She finally got sight of him by the front door talking to someone, but she couldn't make out who because Paul was blocking them. Probably a fan, she thought to herself as she went to join him. Boy was she ever in for the shock of her life.


"Paul, are you ready to go" she started to ask, but stopped dead when she saw Joanie standing there.

So that's the reason, he didn't ask about the pregnancy. Joanie thought to herself. I bet he never even told her about it.

"Stephanie," Joanie said, acknowledging the other women.

"Joanie," she said back. "Paul, can we please go now. I'm starting to not feel good."

"Okay," Paul said reluctantly. He didn't want to leave Joanie. There was so much he wanted to say to her, but he couldn't, not in front of Stephanie. He made up his mind to find out where she lived so he could talk to her later.

"Why don't you wait in the car, while I pay the bill, then we can head back to the hotel so you can rest?"

"You don't have to bother, I already left the money on the table, so we can leave know," with that said she turned and exited the building without saying bye.

"Okay, well I guess I'll see you later," Paul said. Fully intended to make sure that happened.

"Goodbye, Paul," Joanie said and turned her back on him so he wouldn't see the tears starting to from in her eyes.

Not wanting to cause a scene and knowing full well that he would be seeing her later, Paul decided to leave. But that was the last thing he felt like doing. He wanted to grab Joanie and kiss her, but he couldn't do that, not here and not with Stephanie in the car waiting for him.


After Paul left, Joanie started to feel the false contractions again, so she sat down, waiting for them to pass. But they didn't. In fact, they seem to be stronger than normal, and all of a sudden Joanie felt something happen. When she looked down, she noticed that the front of her overalls was wet. Funny, she thought, I don't remember spilling anything on me. And then it dawned on her, her water had just broken and she was in a lot of pain.


"Someone help me please, by water just broke," where the last words she said before she passed out.....................


A/N : Well that's it for now, I swear the next part will be up by night, by muses made be promise or else the threatened to kick by butt. Anyways let me know what you think. Please help me keep the muses happy by reviewing, whether good or bad ;) Until next time...........




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