Strength


A/N : For the purpose of this story Sean Waltman hasn't bee with the WWE for awhile


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It was touch and go for a while with the twins, who Joanie named, Jonathan Thomas, and Paulina Jessica, or JT and PJ, as they were known in the N.N.I.C.U.. When it came time to fill out their birth certificates, she wasn't sure if she was going to list Paul as the father, but decided to, because even though Paul may not want to have anything to do with the twins, he was still their father and they had been conceived in love, at least on her part anyway. Since the twins were two months premature, their lungs were not fully developed and they had to be on ventilators. They also developed some serious infections. At two different times, PJ and JT's hearts stopped beating and they had to be restarted. But the twins were strong, just like their parents.


Meanwhile, Paul continued to rehab his injured quad, and make plans for his come back. He had hoped to be cleared for a late November return so he could participate at the December pay-per-view, Vengeance, in San Diego, Ca, but that didn't happen. He was finally cleared to return at the end of December, but Vince and JR decided to hold off on his return until January 7th, when Raw, would be live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. This was fine by Paul, who knew that the crowd at the Garden, tended to be really hot. Things with Stephanie were going as well as could be expected. Her alliance team had lost at Survivor Series, so Stephanie was off of t.v., which was a good thing for her, because she got to spend that time with Paul, talking about wedding plans, but not for him because she was starting to smother him. Stephanie wanted Paul to move in with her and sale the house that he use to share with Joanie, but he refused. It was just about the only thing that he had left that reminded him of her, that and the home pregnancy test. He could never bring himself to get rid of it, even though it now represented everything he had lost. He didn't sell his house, but he did spend most of his time at Steph's, he would only go home to get clothes and check the mail.


At the same moment that Paul was making his long awaited return to the WWE, JT and PJ were being taking off their ventilators. Though they were managing to breathe on their own, they still weren't out of the woods, just quiet yet. Joanie spent all her time at the hospital with her twins and didn't keep up with what was going on in the world of Professional Wrestling, so she didn't know that Paul and Stephanie were engaged.


After Paul came back he was a babyface, which he hadn't been since him and Joanie were together. It was different, but he had to admit, that he had missed the cheers of the crowds. Paul had only been back for a couple of weeks when the writers told him they had a new storyline for him and Stephanie. The storyline would eventually lead to their onscreen break up, which Paul didn't mind one bit, but in order for it to get to that, Stephanie would fake a pregnancy and try and trick Paul into renewing their vows. When he found out he would dumb her and she would start managing Chris Jericho, the current undisputed champion, which would eventually lead to a match at Wrestlemania. The only part of the storyline Paul had a problem with was the fake pregnancy angle, it brought up way to many painful memories for him.

"Hey JR, can I talk to you for a moment," Paul said at a Smackdown taping when he was first told of the up coming storyline.

"Sure Paul. Follow me to my office and we can talk in private." JR led Paul down a short hallway and into his makeshift office for the night.

"What can I do for you?"

"It's about the upcoming storyline that you guys have Steph and I in."

"What about it? I thought that you would be happy to headline Wrestlemania X8 with Chris and win the undisputed championship."

"Oh, I am. That's not the part I have a problem with. It's the whole fake pregnancy angle that I don't like. Do we really have to do it? It just doesn't make any sense, as for as I can see."

"I'm sorry you don't like it, but it stays. The writers feel it will show just how much of a "bitch" that Stephanie can be to get what she wants."

"Couldn't they came up with some other way of doing that. Why this way?" Paul asked agitatedly.

"Paul, what do you have against this storyline?"

"Nothing," he lied and then left the room. The storyline went ahead as planned and Paul just had to grin his teeth and bear it. The time finally came for Wrestlemania X8 in Toronto, Canada and Paul was ready. Right before he went out for his match Paul pulled out the little home pregnancy test, something inside of him had told him to bring it with him. As he stared at the test he was gripped by the sudden feeling that something big was happening today and he should be there with for it. And he wasn't thinking about winning the undisputed championship from Chris. He didn't have time to dwell on the feeling though because right then a stagehand knocked on his door to tell him it was time for his match.


What Paul didn't know was that something big was indeed happening that very day. The twins were finally getting to go home after being in the hospital for four months. So as Paul was winning the title and pedigreeing Stephanie's skanky ass into the ring, Joanie was settling JT and PJ into their cribs for the first time. Though the babies got to come home they were still small for their ages. PJ only weighed 7lbs 13oz and JT 8lbs 10oz, the doctor assured Joanie that they would be fine but may stay small for the first year or two, but that they were perfectly healthy. Their lungs were fully developed and that was a good sign. Also they hadn't had any more serious infections, nor had their hearts ever stopped beating again. No matter what the doctors told Joanie she still worried. As the next few months went on she started worrying less and even managed to start having a life once again. It had been awhile since she had even thought about wrestling. One night while the twins were both sleeping at the same time, which was something that rarely happened, Joanie decided to turn Raw. She had heard rumors that Paul and Stephanie were engaged but could never confirm them. Though she didn't try all that hard. As she watched Raw she was surprised to see Shawn Micheals make his much anticipated return to wrestling. God, how she missed him. He had always been one of her very best friends, but she hadn't talked to him since before she left. It was easy for her to watch Raw because both Stephanie and Paul were on Smackdown, and she didn't have to see them. Needless to say she was once again hooked. She hadn't let herself think about how much she really missed wrestling up until then, but once she started watching again she wanted nothing more than to preform. She knew that she could never go back to the WWE, and WCW and ECW were out of business so she decided to go to Japan to wrestle. At least there she could get fresh start and not have to worry about a lot of people in the business knowing about what had happened between her, Paul and the slut. It was while she was in Japan that she met back up with Sean Waltman, better known as X-pac. At first they were just friends, but that friendship grew into something more and eventually they became engaged. Joanie didn't tell anyone who the twins father was even Sean, but he didn't care because he loved the twins, who were now being called Jessie and Tommy. Joanie decided to call the twins by their middle names because she didn't want anyone to know that she named the twins after her and Paul. PJ, stood for Paulina Jessica, and JT, for Jonathan Thomas. After Joanie and Sean started to get really hot in Japan, PWI, a wrestling magazine decided to an article about them. It was a very nice piece, it mainly focused on Joanie and Sean's success. At one point, however, when Sean left the room, the reporter asked Joanie about the twins. She didn't know why she did it, but she lied to him. She told him that they were only six months old, which was believable, since they were still so small, and that Sean was their father. She was almost called on her lie by the reporter, who wondered how he could be the twins father, when they were only supposed to have gotten re-met a few months ago. Thinking fast Joanie said that was all for storyline purposes and that her and Sean had been together for awhile. The interview wrapped up and the reporter left. Joanie felt guilty for the lies she told and wanted to tell Sean, but something held her back.



Meanwhile, back in the states, a lot of things had happened since Paul had won the title at Wrestlemania X8. The brand extension took place and as Champion he got to be on both shows, Stephanie was once again taken off of television for a while. Which Paul loved because she wasn't traveling with him. But once he lost the title to Hogan he had to stay on Smackdown, which he didn't mind at first, until Vince made Stephanie, "General Manager," of Smackdown. While Stephanie had been off of television, her and Paul had started to grow apart. She met someone else and started dating him. When she came back to Smackdown she told Paul she was calling off their engagement, which pleased Paul to no end. A couple of weeks later Paul was told that he was going to Raw to reunite with Shawn, who was left alone when Kevin went down with the same quad injury that Paul had a year ago. Once on Raw, Paul turned back into the evil "Game" he used to be. He started a feud with Shawn that was just electrifying, and led to their match at SummerSlam, which was a contender for Match of The Year. He was then named Raw World Champion and went into a stupid, sick, and twisted feud with Kane. Not exactly the highlight of his career. Every once in a while he would think about Joanie and wonder where she was and what she was doing. He would also think about what might have been. But, he didn't let himself dwell on those thoughts to long, or he would start to get depressed.


One Sunday in early November, the Raw crew were in Boston, for a house show and Paul was in a particularly bad mood. Everyone was doing there best to avoid him. At first Paul didn't know why he was so mad, he just woke up that way. But as the day wore on and it dawned on him just what the date was, he knew why he was in such a foul mood. It was exactly one year ago today that he had seen Joanie in Nashville. It was also the dad that any hope he had for getting back together with her was permanently shattered. After his match, Paul went back to the locker room to change. He was hoping the place would be empty because he wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone. But he didn't get his wish because when he got to the locker room, he noticed that a few guys were still around. Among them was Kevin, who had come to visit, and was talking with Rob and Shawn who was looking through the latest edition of PWI magazine. Paul wasn't paying any attention to anybody until he heard Shawn start talking.


"Well, I'll be damned," Shawn yelled.

"What are you yelling about?" Kevin asked.

"This," Shawn said, as he gestured towards the magazine

"What? Are there naked girly pictures in there?"

"No, you idiot. It's an article about Joanie." This immediately grabbed Paul's attention.

"What's it say?" Kevin asked

"I haven't read the whole thing yet, but so far it's talking about her wrestling over in Japan."

"What?"

"Yeah apparently after taking some time off, she's now back wrestling for New Japan."

"Well, good for her. Hey, isn't that were Sean is now working?"

"I think so."

"What else does the article say?" Kevin asked as he wait for Shawn to finish reading the story.


Paul was also waiting for Shawn to finish reading the article because it had been so long since he had heard anything about Joanie that he was starving for any little information that he could get. He was starting to get antsy because it seemed like Shawn was taking to long to finish the story when he suddenly spoke again.

"Oh my god," he exclaimed.

"What?" Both Kevin and Paul said at the same time

"Well according to this, Joanie and Sean are engaged and the proud parents of 6 month old twins. A boy named Tommy and a girl named Jessie. There is even a couple of pictures, their very cute."

"Let me see that," Kevin said as he took the magazine away from Shawn and looked at the story.

"Damn, you weren't lying. The are engaged and those sure are some cute babies. Wanna look Paul?" Kevin asked as he started to pass the magazine to him. But stopped when he noticed all the color had drained from his friends face.

"What's wrong?" Shawn asked as he too had noticed the sudden change in Paul.


Not being able to say anything for fear he might break down, Paul quickly grabbed his bags and left the locker room. He ignored the shouts of both Kevin and Shawn and hurried to his car. He couldn't deal with this right now. His heart was breaking. Joanie, the woman whom he still loved, was engaged to one of his best friends, and they had 6 month old twins together. It was to much for his mind to process right now. So that night Paul got reacquainted with to old friends, Jack Daniels and Jim Bean.


A/N : Sorry it took so long to update but I've been busy with school and studying for finals. I know the chapter pretty much sucks, but I promise I will do better next time.....please read and review :)