Disclaimer: I own no one except Nicole

A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed the last chapter. Here's chapter 16, hope you all enjoy it, and please review.

Chapter 16: Can You Stand The Rain

The next morning Nicole woke up to find herself stationed in Randy's nice strong arms. Looking over her shoulder she kissed his neck and got up to take her customary shower before waking Randy up.

"Randy, are you awake?"

She watched as he yawned and rubbed his eyes. "I am now. Why?"

"Well, we leave for the next town in two hours and I was hoping if I woke you up now, we'd be able to go grab some breakfast before we have to meet the others."

Yawning once again he stood up and walked into the bathroom. "Alright, I'll be ready in 30 minutes, okay?"

"Okay, I'll just be downstairs."

He nodded, and without even kissing her good morning walked into the bathroom. Staring after him, she headed down to the hotel restaurant.

Randy's POV

Randy stood in front of the mirror studying his reflection. In his eyes, he looked guilty because he could see that he was slowly shutting out the love of his life...Nicole.

'What the hell am I doing here?' he silently asked himself.

Sighing, he walked out of the bathroom and walked over to his suitcase to pick out his clothes for the day.

"What to wear...what to wear..."

Moving things around he found nothing and walked over to see if there was something on the hook in the bathroom. Turns out there was because he found his black Armani suit; one of Nicole's personal favorites to see him in.

"That's the one..."he softly spoke, taking it off of the hanger.

Nicole's POV

"Here's your chocolate chip muffin, Miss," a waiter spoke, placing the muffin down onto the table.

"Thank you," she answered, biting into it as he left to go serve someone else.

"Hungry much, Nikki?"

She looked up at Dave who was smiling, while the other two just had amused looks on their faces.

"Nah, I just love chocolate chip muffins," she offered up in response.

Nodding he went back to his pancake breakfast, as did Ric.

"So where's Randy?"

"Right here," he answered from behind Nicole, taking a seat next to her.

"Good morning Randy."

"Morning you guys...Nicole."

Blinking at his using her first name instead of his usual little nicknames, she nodded and went on back to eating her muffin.

"You better get to ordering breakfast before we get ready to head on out to the road, Randy," Ric spoke, drinking from his coffee mug.

"Nah I think I'm going to pass this morning. I'm not very hungry."

Shaking his head, Hunter picked up two pieces of toast and stuck one of them in his mouth.

When Randy raised his eyes to look at him, Hunter held up a hand. "Eat."

"But I'm not hungry, Hunter."

"Don't care. Eat." Hunter said, checking this morning's stocks.

Biting her lip to keep from laughing she stood up and threw away her trash, re-taking her seat at the table.

"Finished already, Nikki?"

"Yeah, I told you I love chocolate chip muffins."

Dave laughed and stood up, taking her hand in his.

"Where are we going, Dave?"

"No where special, I just thought you'd like to take a walk with me is all."

Raising a suspicious eyebrow, she reluctantly nodded and followed Dave out of the hotel.

Randy's POV

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Dave and Nicole left.

'I wonder if he'll be there to watch over her if we were to break up?'

Shaking his head he started ripping off little pieces of toast like one would do when plucking petals off of flowers.

'She loves me...She loves me not...She loves me...She loves me not...She loves me...She loves me not.'

"Oh this is completely stupid," he angrily muttered under his breath.

Although he didn't realize it, Hunter and Ric had heard him. Just as Hunter went to open his mouth, he was silenced by a look from Ric shaking his head.

"Leave him be," he mouthed.

"Okay," Hunter said out loud causing Randy to look up.

"What did you say Hunter?"

"Uh," he said, eyes darting back and forth between Ric and Randy, "Ready to go?"

Randy raised an eyebrow at Hunter's strange behavior. "Okay, but shouldn't we wait for Dave and Nikki?"

"That isn't necessary. They're probably out in the parking lot already."

"Well shouldn't we go and get our luggage out of our rooms then?"

Standing up, Hunter buttoned up his gray jacket. "No, I arranged for them to be brought down while we were all at breakfast."

Eyeing him warily he stood up and looked at Hunter. "Man, you are sure acting weird today."

"Funny, I could say the same about you," Hunter muttered to himself.

"What'd you say?"

"I said maybe you're just imagining things."

'What did I walk into an episode of the Twilight Zone or something?'

With one last look at Hunter and Ric, he kindly made his way towards the parking lot.

Nicole's POV

"So what'd you want to talk about?"

Dave raised an eyebrow at Nicole's question. "What makes you think I want to talk about something?"

"Because you've never asked me to take a walk with you before..."

"That's true, but that's not the reason why I asked you to take a walk with me."

"Really," she asked, intrigued now, "so then why'd you ask me to take a walk with you?"

"Nothing really. I just thought you might like to take a walk with me is all."

Shaking her head, she calmly got into the limo and slid over so Dave could get in too. Dave was about to close the door, but someone's hand prevented them from doing so. Looking up they found that Randy, Hunter and Ric were all standing there.

"Sorry guys, we didn't even hear you come up from behind us," Nicole half-heartedly apologized.

"It's okay, Baby." Randy relented. "Now could you two scoot over some more, so we can get in and leave for the next town?"

"Uh yeah man, sure."

In The Limo

Finally five minutes later, everyone was all settled in for the ride down to the site of that night's SD taping. They were seated like this: Randy was next to Nicole, while Hunter and Ric were seated across from them, and Dave on Hunter's side of the limo, in front of them.

"So what did Eric want, Randy?"

"What meeting?" Randy absentmindedly asked, staring out the window.

Hunter, Ric and Dave all looked up listening to their conversation.

"The meeting you had to stay behind and go to last night...remember?"

Randy's POV

Realization finally dawned on Randy as he turned to face his girlfriend.

"The meeting..with Eric...right. It went fine, I guess."

"Really, so what'd he want?"

"Uh, nothing really. Just wanted to discuss some things over with me is all," he answered, going back to staring out of the window.

He could see Nicole look over at the others in confusion, because of their reflections on the window. 'God, I hope I'm doing the right thing here. Because if I'm not, then all this would've been for nothing.'

"Randy..." she began, only to be cut off.

"Look, not to be mean or anything, but could we just drop it for now. I have a really bad headache and our talking, isn't helping it at all."

He watched as the hurt came into her eyes, but yet she never gave any indication his words were affecting her at all.

"Yeah, okay...we'll talk later, then," she relented.

Just as he was turning back to the window, she called his name again.

"Randy?"

Sighing he turned to her again. "Yeah Nicole?"

Nicole's POV

Biting her lip she brought her eyes back up to his. "I love you."

She was waiting to hear him say it back to her like he usually did, but it never came. Instead she watched him turn his head back towards the window in fatigue.

"I know you do, Nicole."

"That's all?" she asked him.

Sighing he nodded and closed his eyes, putting his headphones on his ear.

"Okay, what the hell is his problem today," she wondered aloud, forgetting for a moment that there were other passengers in he car with them.

"Maybe, he's just having an off day, Nikki. Everyone does, he does, you do," replied Ric, startling Nicole from her thoughts.

"I don't quite think that's it. He's been acting weird lately, but this morning, if possible, he became even weirder."

"Like I said everyone's allowed to have a few off days."

"If that's true, then why do I have this feeling in my gut telling my something bad's going to happen tonight?"

Ric and Hunter looked at Dave, since he and Randy seem to have been talking a lot lately.

"Nikki, I think that's your overactive imagination playing tricks on you again."

"Maybe, you might be right Dave. But regardless, there' still something not right with him and I'm determined to find out, tonight," she stated with conviction, putting on headphones and turning the volume up really loud.

Dave's POV

Biting his tongue he turned to look at Hunter and Ric.

"He wouldn't break up with her right?"

Hunter shook his head. "Nah, he wouldn't do that. He's probably just got a lot on his mind."

"Besides," Ric added, "he loves her too much to even think of doing something as stupid as breaking up with her. Even you should know that."

"For everyone's sake, I hope you're right."

SD Tapings

Randy's POV

He was on his way back to the locker room, when he felt two pairs of hands pull him. He couldn't see who they were though, because it was pitch black inside the room.

"Uh could we please get some light in here already," a male voice whispered.

"Be quiet, Blondie. I'm looking for it," whispered a female voice.

"Who are you calling blond, because last I checked you were blond too."

The woman didn't even bother to answer, instead choosing to look for the light switch.

"Right, here we are," he responded, as the lights turned on.

Blinking to get his eyes to adjust to the light, he looked over to find Trish and Chris.

"Oh great. What the hell do you two want now?"

"It's nearing the end of the show, Randy and you still having made good on our little deal yet," Trish said. "So what's the hold up?"

"I haven't seen her since we arrived here earlier."

"Oh so you're saying she hasn't come into the locker room once?"

Randy stood up a little straighter. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Well, I suggest you go find her...and soon."

Then giving him one more look, Trish and Chris calmly walked out of the room as Randy stared up at the ceiling.

"Just stick to the plan, Orton. Remember you're doing this for Nicole." He said out loud to reassure himself.

A few minutes later, Randy left the room and began his trek back towards his own locker room. Upon arrival he found Hunter, Ric and Dave inside.

"Randy, where have you been? We expected you back here 30 minutes ago."

"Sorry Hunter, I had an impromptu meeting that I don't wish to discuss," he spoke taking a seat on one of the many plush leather couches in the room.

"You know I'm starting to think your girlfriend's right. You are acting overly weird today."

"I'm not acting weird Hunter. I told you the other day, I had a few things on my mind and it just so happens that they haven't been resolved yet."

"What about yesterday? I thought you said you found a way to give Nikki her friends back?"

"I have found a way to Nikki her friends back."

Dave who up until now had been, quiet decided to speak. "And?"

"And what?"

"What's the plan?"

"I'm not telling y'all."

Just then the door opened. "Not telling them what?"

"Nothing, you need to worry about, Nikki."

Shrugging she took a seat next to him. "So how's your head? Is it feeling any better?"

"Yeah, it's fine now."

"Oh well I'm glad. You really had me worried about you today," she said smiling.

Randy could feel his resolve breaking. He had to end this before he changed his mind.

"Yeah, um, could you come with me for a second?"

He watched as her smile faltered for a second. "Sure, what for?"

'Remember, stick to the plan,' he reminded himself.

"Well to be honest, we need to talk."