Six months later
Everyone was sitting in John's hospital room. He had been on chemo and radiation since he had been diagnosed and neither had done any good. They had tried to find a donor for him to have a bone marrow transplant but none turned up. Everyone was spending time with him because they were all told that he didn't have much longer to live. Jessie and Trish were sitting on each side of him, their heads on his shoulder.
"I love you John" Trish said as she kissed his lips. She started crying when she realized they were becoming cold.
"I love you too" he gasped out, suddenly short of breath.
"I love you too" Jessie said to him as she had her head wrapped in his neck.
"Love you...babygirl" with those final words John closed his eyes and took his final breath. The machines hooked up to him started beeping as his heart stopped, everyone knew he was gone. Trish and Jessie started sobbing. Randy went to Trish as Mark went to Jessie, both of them offering comfort and strength as they held the girls in their arms as they shook with sobs.
'I can't believe its over' Randy thought to himself mournfully. 'It seems like such a short amount of time for him to be taken out of my life'.
Jessie woke up in a cold sweat. She realized that it was still the night that John had told everyone about his cancer, he was still alive. She was still upset. She wanted to go to John but didn't want to burden him with her problems. She got up and walked down the hall. She walked into the room and noticed Sylvain's deep, even breathing as he slept "Sylvain" she said, coming over to the bed and shaking him a bit "Sylvain" he woke up immediately and looked up at her through half worried, half sleepy eyes.
"Cherie?" he asked, his accent more pronounced having come out of a deep sleep so suddenly "what is it? Is something the matter?"
"Kinda" she said, trying not to cry again "I had a horrible nightmare. I dreamed it was like months from now and we were all gathered in dad's hospital room and...and...he died" she finished with a sob. Sylvain sat up and gathered her into his arms. He shooshed her a few minutes, laying down with her in the bed.
"Try and get some sleep cherie" Sylvain said, holding her protectively in his arms.
The next morning John, Randy, and Sylvain were standing on the back porch talking while Trish, Alexis and Jessie cooked breakfast and the kids watched a movie in John and Trish's room. "So I wanna talk to you guys" John said out of the blue, getting Randy and Sylvain's attentions. "I just want to know that...incase I don't make it that Trish, Jessie and Kevin will be taken care of you know. I wanna know that you two will make sure they're ok".
"Of course" Randy answered verbally as Sylvain nodded. "But John you're gonna make it. You will. You said it yourself this cancer is the easiest to beat, you'll get through it".
"We don't know that" John said "all I'm doing is being realistic. None of us know if I'm going to beat it or not".
"You will" Randy said, determinedly.
"Maybe, maybe not" John then switched the subject "let's go inside, I think the girls are about done with breakfast". With that Sylvain and Randy followed John inside. When they stepped inside all 3 guys eyes saw Jessie standing there, she had tears in her eyes.
"So you're determined that your gonna die" she said in a cold voice, looking at John.
"Babygi--" John started as he started walking toward her. She held out her arms though, to stop him.
"NO!" she almost screamed "I see how it is. Dad you may have given up on yourself but I sure as hell haven't given up on you" with that she stormed up to her room and the guys heard her door slam shut. John sighed deeply and looked at them.
"One of you go check and make sure she didn't startle the kids" he said as he made his way to the stairs "I'm going to go talk to her". With that he walked to Jessie's room. He stood outside the door a second before knocking. He could hear her sobs from outside the room, it broke his heart. "Babygirl can I come in?" he asked as he knocked. She didn't answer so he gingerly opened the door and stuck his head inside. She was laying face down on the bed, crying with her head in her arms. He walked in, after shutting the door behind him, and sat beside her on the bed. "Honey" he said, touching her shoulder gently.
"So you think you're gonna die" Jessie said as she sat up, looking him in the eye.
"I don't want to die" John said looking back at her, answering honestly "but the fact remains that I might. I'm just being realistic".
"I wish you weren't so resigned" Jessie said as she moved to look out the window "I mean its like you've accepted the fact of dying and you're expecting it".
"Jessie" John said, coming up to stand behind her and wrapping his arms around her from behind "I haven't accepted anything. I mean two days ago I find out that I'm dying and that I'm having to fight for my life, how am I supposed to act? How am I supposed to feel?"
"Don't accept it" Jessie said, turning around in his arms "don't go so willingly. Fight it. Fight it like its the biggest match of your life and you want to come out on top". Jessie's eyes pleaded with John, a few tears making their way down her face that shown vulnerability in her eyes. She was scared and John knew it, he was scared too.
"I will" John said, suddenly determined to not break his little girls heart, even if he may have been making a promise he couldn't keep "I won't die. I'll fight this cancer and I'll beat it, I'll come out on top". Jessie's arms tightened around John and they shared a big hug. Once they pulled back John smiled down at Jessie "let's go see if breakfast is ready, I'm starving and I gotta keep my strength up. They told me it was better for the chemo and radiation if I was in good condition".
They went downstairs and saw everyone in the kitchen eating breakfast "you're all eating without us?" John questioned, a smile on his face.
"You wate dada" Kevin said as he chewed a piece of egg. John laughed and came to sit beside him, Jessie sitting beside Sylvain. Everyone talked and joked through breakfast, John's cancer not mentioned. No one wanted to bring down the mood. After breakfast Alexis helped Trish with the dishes as Jessie went to start the movie back for the kids, so they'd be out of their hair as they did it.
"Hun" John said, circling his arms around Trish's waist as she washed "Randy, Sylvain and I are gonna go to the gym and work out a bit, we're going to Gold's so if we can get into the ring we're gonna do that".
"Can I come?" Jessie asked, coming back into the kitchen "I wanna learn how to wrestle".
"Interested in becoming a diva babygirl" John asked her with a smile.
"Nope" Jessie laughed "I like my cushy writers job just fine. It's just that since I've made a few appearances in the ring before I think Stephanie may want me in a storyline sometime in the future so I want to learn how to wrestle. I won't be lucky enough to have someone like Candice standing across the ring from me always". Everyone knew the reason Jessie gave was not her real reason. She wanted to spend time with John. No one said anything though, they all just agreed that Jessie could go.
"Jessie" Randy said as they stood in the ring "you're better than I gave you credit for. I guess just watching on tv does give you the ability to pick moves up. You still have to learn the psychology and all but you have a heads up on ring work". Randy then told Jessie to drop kick him. Sylvain and John watched from the outside as she executed a perfect drop kick on him. She got back up quickly and Randy looked impressed.
"Babygirl" John called from the outside "that drop kick looked just like the one Randy does".
"Where you think I got it from?" Jessie cracked "I've stolen all my moves from other people".
"Like what?" Randy asked her. Jessie lashed her foot out and stopped inches from Randy's jaw. From the outside someone might have thought she actually kicked him.
"Sweet chin music" she said. She then grabbed Randy's head and performed a perfect Stratusfaction on him.
"Stratusfaction" she said, again. She then drop toe holed Randy and grabbed his ankle, locking on the ankle lock. Randy tried to grab the roped but Jessie kept dragging him back. Finally he had no choice but to tap. He rolled out of the ring, glaring at Sylvain and John who were laughing their asses off at him.
"You think that's funny" he asked them. "You get in the ring with her" he said to Sylvain. Sylvain shrugged and nodded. He took his shirt off and hopped in the ring.
"Cherie" he said, as he circled the ring a bit "let's have a match, that way you can show us what all you know and not just parts" Jessie nodded and John jumped in the ring to act as 'ref'.
They circled each other and locked up in the middle of the ring. Jessie broke the hold and pulled Sylvain into a side headlock. John watched to make sure it wasn't a choke hold. Sylvain powered out and sent her to the ropes, clotheslining her as she came back. He grabbed her as she pulled herself up off of the ring and went to shoot her into the turnbuckle only to have Jessie reverse it and send him back first into it. She capitalized on it by driving her shoulder into his stomach a few times. After she saw that he was winded she grabbed his head and put her feet into his stomach, flipping him over her and crashing into the mat. He laid there selling as she climbed onto the turnbuckle and faced him. She jumped and did a moonsault hitting it perfectly. She covered him and got a 2 count. Sylvain slowly got up and blocked Jessie's blows to him. He set her up for a powerbomb but she flipped out of it. As he turned around to face her she kicked him in the stomach. She landed a ddt and stood up as Sylvain laid on the ring. She then picked him up and to John's, Randy's and even Sylvain's surprise she FU'ed him. John shook himself out of his stupor and counted the 3 count as Jessie covered Sylvain. She stood up and jokingly got on the turn buckles, playing to the imaginary crowd.
"Holy shit" Randy said as he got in the ring "you just FU'ed a 240 lb man". Jessie smirked as she climbed down the turnbuckle and went over to the 3 men.
"Yep" she said simply.
"How in the hell did you get so deceptively strong?" John asked her as he looked at her small frame.
"Well" Jessie said "I took a weightlifting class in college. I did it mostly because I wanted to flirt with the hot guys on the track team but I got alot out of it, I got in better shape".
"That is how you say, hot" Sylvain said, coming up to Jessie and kissing her lightly.
"You're sweaty" she said, making a grossed out face.
"So are you" he pointed out.
"Let's all go work up even more of a sweat and go work out" John said "I'm getting bored of ring work". Everyone nodded and they followed him to various pieces of equipment. All through the workout session Jessie made sure to keep close to one of the guys. Even though she knew Josh was dead she couldn't help but be a bit nervous being in the gym. It was the same one he had attacked her in. The guys picked up on it but none of them said anything, just interacting with her as much as possible to maybe keep her mind off of it. After they had worked out a while they all went to pick up lunch and then went back home.