Chapter 7

Marie was slowly waking up, and she heard a familiar voice say, "Marie honey sit still." Marie recognized the voice and said, "John is the room dark?" John said, "Yea...I made sure the lights were off incase you woke up..." Marie's eyes slowly fluttered open...and she said, "Where's my dad?"

John said, "He had to stay and finish up with the people that showed up...I hope you don't mind me coming with you...I didn't want you to go alone and wake up without anyone here...You're dad is probably plotting to get Randy killed some time soon."

John watched as tears slid down her cheeks for a second time that night as Marie said, "Why would he do this to me...He knows women can't take the RKO...Why would he deliberately hurt me." John grabbed Marie's hand as his thumb rubbed the back of her knuckles and said, "I don't know Marie...He's one of my closest friends in this company...I don't know why he would hurt you on purpose...I don't think anyone knows."

Marie said, "Hell...I know I'm the one who broke up with him, but could anyone really blame me...I walked in on him screwing four separate women...what was I supposed to do...Go to bed and ignore the fact that he was laying next to me with four women who'd be on the Randy Orton Express...Or oh wait, maybe I should of just shut up and joined him."

Marie couldn't stop the tears any longer...she sobbed as John held onto her hand...A loud voice at the end of the hall gave her a heads up that her father was making his way down the hall...Marie wiped her eyes and tried to calm herself...She didn't want her father to see her like this. Steve walked through the door and to the other side of Marie's bed as he couldn't say anything...

She carefully sat up and looked in her father's eyes that were so much like hers and said, "I'm okay dad." Steve pulled her into a hug carefully as he stroked her hair and said, "I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost you baby girl." She'd never heard her father say something like that and with one shaky breath she was crying again.

John couldn't help but notice how small she looked in her father's arms...and how extremely pissed off he was at his best friend at the moment...he couldn't believe how careless Randy had been as to put someone in danger by using his finishing move on someone who was at least a hundred pounds or more less then he was...John clenched his fists as he sat in the chair...he was gonna have to calm down or he'd be beating Randy before Steve could touch him.

Despite all of Steve's efforts, he couldn't get Randy thrown back on the road to save his life. Randy kept to himself for the remainder of the stay at OVW...he taught his recruits and went back to the house...other then that...he had no interaction with anyone...Even John had looked at him like he couldn't stand to breathe the same air as him...Not that he could blame John...what he'd done to Marie was totally unacceptable...he just had to figure out why he would do something that hurtful to a woman, who he once loved more then life itself.

A week later, after all the x-rays and tests Marie was finally allowed to be released from the hospital...Since Steve was training, John came to pick her up...and followed Steve's directions to immediately take her to the house and stay with her until every one got done and back to the house.

John and Marie sat on the couch in the living room talking...naturally the first one back to the house was Randy...he walked through the door and saw John and Marie sitting on the couch. He went up stairs and Marie excused herself to go use the restroom.

About 10 minutes later, John heard some commotion upstairs...He got up and went to see what was going on...when he got to the 2nd floor, Randy had a hold of Marie's hand and was begging for her to talk to him...She finally jerked her hand out of his grasp and said, "Go to hell, you self-centered heartless dick head." Randy watched as Marie walked around him.

Marie was headed to her room when she heard a loud pop and turned around in time to watch Randy's body hit the floor as he held his bloodied nose with John standing over him...She walked over and touched John's arm and he looked up at her and she said, "He's not worth it John...He's not worth it." John stalked off and slammed the door to his room as the sound of rap music vibrated the whole house.

Marie shook her head at Randy...Thank God there was only 4 weeks left for training the recruits...She was going to ask for a transfer to Smackdown...She knew Rachel had already requested one because her and Mark had FINALLY started dating as slow as two people could...but she couldn't be in the same place with Randy Orton anymore...He'd ruined any chance for forgiveness or even friendship when he nearly put her career and life on the line.

Marie walked into her room and laid across her bed...Sleep came fast even if it wasn't bed time...she'd been so tired the last week...she could hardly keep her eyes open anymore.