Hey guys!
Here we go with Chapter Four ... This chapter may seem a bit CM friendly, but don't worry that's not how this story will end. This chapter also sees some hard times ahead for Maria, who will she turn to? For all those people who want to see Maria and John together, stay with me, we'll get there, this is just a detour. Once again, my apologies to all of Phil Brooks' fans but Maria and John come first this time.
I'm pretty sure I know where I'm going with this story, but if anyone would like to see anything in particular let me know
Please note that if i owned john cena ... maria kanellis ... Torrie Wilson (who will appear soon I promise) ...CM Punk or any of the other WWE superstars i wouldn't be writing this ... doing it for fun, making no profit whatsoever yada yada yada .. if i owned the WWE ... Jericho would be back and better than ever .. and Chris Masters would be selling popcorn
Special thanks to those who reviewed, especially Sian & Kiora Storm, as well as P. Dizzle tha Prime Legend Champion for offering some advice.
From Maria? Where are you? ..
"Someone needs to learn how to communicate; to listen and respect those that they hold close to their heart. Now Phil, being a jerk might come real easily to you, but you can be damned if I'm taking a backseat while you break Rias' heart. That girl has worked damn hard to get where she is, she doesn't need you bringing her down!" You could hear the venom in Johns voice as he gave Brooks a real dressing down, and it was taking every bit of restraint in his body to keep him from lashing out physically as well. 'Now you sit here, and don't even think about moving til I get back. I'm going to find my Ria, and do just what you should be doing; thinking about someone other than yourself!"
John opened his door and sighed out loud. The SUV was parked adjacent to a nature preserve, god knows where Ria could have gone! It was going on dusk, and there was a cold snap settling in, enough to make anyone shiver. "Maria!' he called loudly."Baby girl where are you? Ria?" With each step he took closer to the wooded area, he could hear his voice reverberating through the trees. "Darlin', it's mighty silly to go running off at this time of day with no jacket! C'mon Ri, it's me! It's John, I won't let anything happen to you I promise, I just want to make sure you're ok".
With every passing minute he was becoming more worried. He pulled out his phone and hit speed dial one, hoping she'd grabbed it before she'd left the car; she never went anywhere without her phone. The call rang out, and all John got was Maria's' voice mail, "Hey you've reached Maria! Sorry I can't take your call right now, but I promise to get back to you ... Ahhhh John stop tickling me, that hurts ... John! I'm trying to record my message!" Irritated as he was, he couldn't help but smile. They'd be sitting in their locker room, and Maria had just finished an interview. She'd walked into the room totally covered in chocolate milk, with the biggest case of the giggles ever. John had been left in charge of figuring out how to work her new phone, and as soon as she had entered the room John had shoved the phone at her, and they'd recorded that message. It was that night, John figured, that he'd fallen for her for sure. They'd been best friends since she started with the company, but John was quickly becoming captivated by Maria's bubbly personality, her intelligence, her smile and her ability to feel and to love. He loved how she had so much courage, and how she understood him like no one else. Ria was just like one of the guys; Charlie Hass, Shawn, Benoit and Jericho had all adopted her as a 'little sister", and when she was with them and Torrie, she felt like she was truly at home. She put her heart into everything, it wasn't surprising she often got hurt ...
Speaking of hurt ... where was she? "MARIAAAA!"
And now on to chapter four -
Pete Gruner (a.k.a Billy Kidman) was doing laps in their indoor swimming pool when Torries' phone began to ring. As he pulled up in the shallow end, he shook his hair out like a shaggy dog and called out to his wife. "Tor? Tor where are you, your phone's ringing." He shrugged and picked it up anyway, seeing Marias number on the call display. "Maria? Hey, I thought you guys would be on the road by now, Tor was expecting John to call her ages ago." As always when they travelled, John rang Torrie to check in, usually when Maria was alseep and he was driving.Torrie was more than happy to keep John awake while he was on the road, and to find out any recent developments between him and Ria that Maria didn't share with her. Even though they were close, Maria tended to keep her private life to herself, barely even telling John what was going on.
A shaky voice clouded with tears answered him. 'Hey Pete.I'm sure John will call soon. Is Torrie there?" There was a sense of urgency in her voice and Pete wondered what could be wrong.
"Um sure Maria, I'll go find her, I won't be a second." He pulled himself out of the pool and wrapped a towel around himself, Chloe nipping at his heels as he went to find the animals owner.
"Thanks Pete," Maria sighed gratefully.'Could you kinda hurry? It's urgent."
Pete chuckled."Isn't it always?" His voice became serious as he realised there was fear in the divas tone."I'll be right back, don't go anywhere."he said weakly, trying to mask the uneasiness in his voice.
"Don't worry, I won't," Maria muttered.
The sun had set and the temperature was dropping quickly. Her back to a tree she shivered as she drew her knees up to her chest, trying to save body heat. It had only been about fifteen minutes since she'd run away from the car, and her head was beginning to pound. It was stupid for her to sit out here and make the guys worry, but she needed to be alone, she couldn't go back there just yet. She didn't understand why Phil was acting this way. Could he really feel threatened by John? Maybe traveling together wasn't such a great idea, but John was just a friend why couldn't he see that? It was sweet in a way, knowing that they both cared for her so much, but she didn't want life with Phil to be a constant fight. She was being a bit hard on him though; it was probably her fault that he'd almost crashed the car, she'd been talking and distracting him and that wasn't fair. Yes, that was it, she'd been putting so much pressure on him lately that he was starting to break. That was why her last boyfriend had broken up with her. She just wasn't good enough for Phil, and she deserved this, she was a bad girlfriend. Just like all the other guys, Phil was right; she was useless, and she was lucky he stuck with her, she'd have no one without him. This was just as much Johns fault as it was hers. If he hadn't put Phil in such a mood, then this wouldn't have happened. Damn him! Phil would never do anything to hurt her again, he'd said that so many times before! Why couldn't she just believe him? John should just mind his own business! Why couldn't he just be happy for her?
"Hello? Maria?" Torrie answered the phone out of breath. She had been upstairs when her phone rang, and when Pete had yelled out to her that Maria was on the line and sounding distant, she ran back down to the pool deck so she could put Maria on speaker and have some privacy. "What's up, is everything ok?"
Maria gritted her teeth, her new found revelation renewing her strength. John Cena was about to get a piece of her mind. "I'm fine. Actually, I shouldn't have rung, this is probably a bad time. I'll talk to you later."
Torrie stared at the phone, totally baffled. Maria didn't sound a bit like herself. "Um no right now is perfect. Where are you? You sound like you're in a forest, I can barely hear you!" Combined with the chill in Marias voice was an assortment of sounds. Traffic, cars and trucks at high speeds, wind, trees ... and wildlife?
"Look, Tor. I gotta go. Speak soon I promise. Love you, bye."
Before Torrie could get a word in edgewise, she was met with a dial tone. She was still staring at the phone minutes later when Pete came up behind her and draped his arms around her shoulders."What was all that about?"he asked as he nuzzled her neck.
Puzzled, Torrie turned to face him."I have no idea. But I don't think I'm going to like it."
And back to the Champ ..
"Maria! This is nowhere near funny, where are you?" Tears were gathering in Johns eyes as he delved deeper into the woods searching for Maria. He'd seen her like this before; she had been hurt several times previously and now that things were finally going right in her life, the same thing always happened. Everything got turned up on it's head and Maria reverted further back into herself. Phil had been great for her in the beginning; the perfect boyfriend, sweet and attentive, going out of his way to make Maria feel good. Actually, he'd sounded like an alright guy when Maria had first started talking about him. She'd been totally taken with him, and John had thought that maybe this time CM PUNK would be the one to make her happy. Until recently, when he'd started to notice Maria saying little things here and there. She would apologise profusely for everything, even if the incident wasn't her fault, she was always nervous and always eager to appease people. He hadn't seen her like this since just before she'd broken up with her last boyfriend a couple of years ago, and it scared him. Maria was the most docile person he knew, but she had attitude and was never afraid to stand up for herself. But when John came into the picture, Phil hadn't seemed like the hero Maria had written him up as. He was defensive, controlling and something about him rubbed John the wrong way.
'Ria?" John was about ten seconds away from going totally berserk. He tripped over a tree stump, and decided to sit for a minute. Head in his hands, he let the tears flow freely. What was going on here? Why was the girl he loved running away from him? A head popped out from behind a tree, and two beautiful eyes stared out at him. John heard leaves rustling, and try as she might to remain hidden, he saw Maria behind the tree and rushed towards her enveloping her in his arms."Oh girl," he breathed.'You had me scared there for a second,are you ok?"
She was as stiff as a board, refusing to show any weakness to him."I'm fine,"she said harshly."Can we go back to the car? I want to see Phil." The colour all but drained from Johns face as she stepped out of his arms.His arms fell down to his sides, and he seemed momentarily lost.
"Uh, sure Ria. If that's what you want."
"Yes that's what I want, it's what I said isn't it!" Maria hissed. "Just let me get back to him, I need him, I need to apologise for what happened before he decides to get rid of me."
Johns jaw fell open. "Decides to GET RID of you! What the hell Ri, you owe him nothing, you asked him to slow the car down and pull over! He kept driving just as fast and looked what happened! He endangered your safety and you want to get back to him before he breaks up with you!"
Maria turned and stalked off in the direction of the highway, ignoring his questions. He didn't expect any answers. He didn't expect the tirade that was slung at him either.
"Hey John. Just stay out of it, ok? Just stay the hell away from me! This is my business! You've already done enough, you picked a fight with Phil, which is why he was in a crappy mood! You started this! You couldn't be civil to him for even a second! I'm lucky he cares for me at all, he could do so much better! Now if you don't mind, I have to get back to my boyfriend, who hopefully will let this slide. I don't deserve him as it is, and this is just another reason that he could use to cast me aside!"
All of the tension had been relased from her body, and no longer yelling, tears were streaming down the brunettes face as she choked out her words between sobs. Johns heart was breaking just watching her fall to pieces, yet as he walked toward her she ran from him, and slipped even further away. Away from him, and straight into the arms of Phil, who was standng outside the vehicle.
"If you want a lift the rest of the way to Vegas John, I'd get in now," Phil said coldly as Maria wept upon his chest. Never mind the fact that he and Maria had brought the vehicle together, John thought sardonically as he opened the sliding door to the back. Yeah, I'll just sit here and take a backseat while you steal away Ria and break my heart piece by piece. The tears he had hidden from Phil were spilling out over his cheeks as he opened his window and retorted "Didn't you want to make it to Vegas on time Phil?"
And with that, they piled back into the car, Maria falling asleep with her head against the window, Phil still driving like a maniac and John, staring out the window, trying to figure out what he could do to win Maria back.
That's all folks! For tonight as least anyway! And yes, I've decided I'm going to have to get better at dodging the arrows that are getting thrown my way right about now. I'm sorry about the portrayal of Maria here, I love the girl to bits, it's just that's the direction being taken here ... it'll get better I promise! Review if you'd like,
Thanks for reading guys!
