I walked slowly into the arena, my clothes were a disheveled mess. I was wearing these dark sunglasses and if you saw me you would have sworn that I was on drugs. I had Boston's hand in mine but he was walking incredibly slowly. The first person I ran into was Shelton Benjamin.
"What the hell happened to you?" he asked.
"Rough night" I replied.
"Who's this little guy… your nephew?" Shelton asked.
I was about to say my son but when the words came out of my mouth I had said yeah he's my nephew.
"He's cute" Shelton said.
"I guess if you really look at him" I said.
"Mama" Boston said.
That had been the only word he had said since he had been with me. Every one in a while he would just randomly go mama.
"Where's his mom?" Shelton asked.
"She died about a week ago" I replied.
"I'm sorry for your loss man" Shelton said.
"Thanks" I said before Boston and I continued our way.
He stopped half way down the hall way and held his hands up to me. I sighed and picked him up. When we got the my locker room I put him down on the floor and rummaged through the bag Adrian had packed for him to find something for him to play with. I found a few toy cars and some other things. I was like to hell with it and just placed all his toys on the floor. The first thing he picked up was his binky.
'Why couldn't we have found that last night?' I thought.
Once I was sure he was entertained I went about my business of getting ready for the show that night. Boston walked over to my belt and wanted to play with it.
"Boston no don't touch that" I told him.
He looked at me and smiled as he continued to touch the belt.
"Boston I said not to touch that" I said in a stricter tone.
Boston tried to pick the belt up but it was too heavy for him and he ended up falling over and bumping his head on the corner of the bench I had been sitting on. He began to cry.
"Come here" I said pulling him onto my lap. I checked to make sure he hadn't hit his eye.
"You are gonna have a bump tomorrow" I said.
He yawned and began to rub his eyes.
"You tired?" I asked "how about we both lie down on the couch"
I was lying on the couch and Boston was lying on my chest. I have to say this was a lot better than yesterday. I fell asleep thinking about the times Ashley and I used to lay like that.
I swear I only had my eyes closed for about 2 seconds. When I woke up my locker room was a mess. Boston had gotten into all my things and scattered them all over the floor and then he had sprayed my shaving cream all over the place. He was covered in it. The first thing I did was check his hands and arms to makes sure he hadn't cut himself with my razor which was also laying on the floor.
"Boston you I swear you are going to kill me" I said picking him up. I held away from me so my shirt wouldn't get covered with shaving cream.
Now where do I take him…? Trish I know she has nephews. Plus she knows Maddie and Adrian so she'll want to help.
"Please Trish I have to clean up my locker room and I can't do that and keep an eye on him at the same time" I begged.
"Maybe if you had kept an eye on him he wouldn't have made a mess" she replied.
"We had a rough night and I fell asleep it's not like I killed anyone" I said.
"Yes but your son could have seriously hurt himself while you were asleep" she scolded me for my carelessness. "he is 12 months old he doesn't know what is going to hurt him and what isn't"
"So will you watch him?" I asked her.
"Bring me some clean clothes and I'll bathe him and he looks hungry so bring his food over too" she said.
"Thank you Trish I owe you big time" I hugged her tightly.
"Don't get used to this Cena because I'm not Boston's mom he's your son, your responsibility" She said.
"I'm hearing that a lot lately" I said.
I brought over some clothes . Trish was bathing Boston at the time and they were both laughing. I felt a pang of jealousy Boston seemed so comfortable with Trish and part of me wished he could be like that with me.
I cleaned up my locker room and then it was time for my match. My back hurt afterwards I was facing Chris Master and he miscalculated and hit me right in my spine. He had apologized 100 times since then. I went to go pick up Boston from Trish. He was knocked out on the couch sucking his thumb.
"He's been pulling on his ear" Trish said "I think he is getting more teeth.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"He only has 9 teeth" she said.
"Really I thought he would have more" I said.
"It depends on the kid" she said "he looks so much like Ashley when he sleeps"
"I didn't realize you knew Ashley" I said.
"Of course I did I met her at Randy and Maddie's wedding" she said "we kept in touch ever since… I couldn't believe it when I heard she had died"
"Sometimes bad shit happens to good people" I said. It sounded harsh and I hadn't meant for it to sound that way but Ashley's death still hurt too much and talking about it wasn't something I was ready to do at that moment.
"Yeah I guess" I said "well if you ever want to talk I'm here to listen"
"Thanks but I don't think I'll ever be ok to talk about it" I said.
I picked up Boston and carried him to my locker room. On the way he woke up and lifted his head to see who was carrying him. I guess he trusted me enough to go back to sleep. I walked into my locker room to find Randy sitting waiting for me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I came to see how you were" he said.
I placed Boston on the couch.
"How do you think I am the love of my life died and now I'm saddled down with a baby" I said.
"You are lucky Boston is a pretty easy baby" he said.
"He cried all night" I had to suppress my need to yell.
"Can you blame him?" Randy asked "not to mention you don't know how to get him to sleep"
"Ok Master how do you put him to sleep?" I asked sarcastically.
"I shouldn't tell you but you need to sing to him" Randy said "Ashley rocked him to sleep every night and she always sang the same song to him.
"I don't sing" I said.
Randy wrote down the words to the song and handed it to me "you will if you ever want to get a good night sleep again".
Boston started whining in his sleep. Randy went over to check on him.
"John come here and feel his head" Randy said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because he feels really hot to me" Randy said.
"As in feverish?" I asked.
"Duh dumbass" Randy replied.
I went over and placed my hand on Boston's forehead and sure enough he was really hot.
"What do we do?" I asked.
"Take him to a hospital" Randy said.
So that is how I spent my evening sitting in a hospital waiting room.
"Mr. Cena"
"Is my son ok?" I asked.
"Yeah his teeth caused his fever we gave him so Children's Tylenol that will help with the pain of his teeth and the fever"
"So can I take him home?" I asked.
"Yes"
Randy drove us back to my hotel and we went our separate ways. Boston was awake now.
"Ok it's bed time" I said to him.
I tucked him into bed he seemed to be looking at me, he knew what was missing.
I relented, I pulled the piece of paper out of my pocket.
"I just climbed out of a cottonwood tree, I was runnin from some honey bees. Drip dryin in the summer breeze after jumping into Calico Creek. I was walkin down an old dirt road past a field of hay that had just been mowed. Man I wish you'd just left me alone. Cuz I was almost home."
By the time I finished the song Boston was asleep. I sat and watched him sleep for a while. I felt his forehead the fever had gone down.
"I promised your grandfather that I would always be there for your mom and I broke that promise but it's going to be different" I said "I have no idea how to be a dad but if you are willing to bare with me then I will try to be the best dad I can be" I whispered to his sleeping form.
"You know when me and your mom were together, she gave me this really embarrassing nickname" I continued to talking to him "who would have thought that I would give anything to hear her call me it just one more time"
"She always thought I hated it but it never really bothered me but I know she'd love it if I gave the name to you. So good night my little Boo Berry" I kissed his forehead before lying down beside him.
