Disclaimer: I own only Kimberly and Stephan
Chapter 10: Starting Over
John and Kimberly spent the next few days starting to rebuild their relationship. They holed themselves in her home and she told John everything from her past. What she said explained why she kept things hidden from him and the world. John promised himself he would spend the rest of his life protecting her. He needed to regain her trust; he was going to start over with her from the beginning; they would start dating again. He was going to prove how much he loved her. They agreed Kimberly would travel with him as much as possible so they could spend more time together and fix what was broken. On Sunday John reported back to Smackdown. There was a huge announcement and the draft lottery was going to start on Monday's Raw show.
That night he called and said he had big news. She agreed to fly to St Louis in the morning and meet him at the hotel. He wouldn't tell her what the surprise was; she knew he was legally obligated to keep quiet.
He met her in the lobby and he seemed so excited. He told her he got her front row tickets for tonight's show only she was sitting opposite the same area she usually did. They spent the afternoon walking around downtown St Louis and did a bit of shopping. John wasn't to report until after 8 pm. Kimberly could put two and two together and figured he must be the first draft pick and he was switching to Raw. They had dinner and left for the arena. When they arrived they were escorted down an empty hallway to a locker room. It had all the usual things and they watched the show as they waited. A security guard came to get Kimberly and she gave John a hug and kiss. When she had gone, Eric Bischoff walked in and welcomed John to Raw. He went over the plan with him and left. Chris Irvine's show was beginning when she got to her seat. The security guard stayed with her the whole time, she found this odd, but shook it off. Chris said his first guest would be the biggest thing to happen in the history of Raw, the first draft pick. The arena grew silent in anticipation. Nobody had any clue who it would be. Kimberly heard a few fans thinking they would bring Taker back to Raw. Maybe Mysterio so he could be used to his full potential. John's music hit and the reaction was deafening. Chris's expression was priceless. Fans went crazy and it lit John like a fuse to dynamite. Kimberly had to laugh at the response of the fans. They loved him and did their best to show it. It seemed surreal that the man she loved was also loved by half the world.
The rest of the evening was a whirlwind of excitement. They were greeted backstage by almost everyone on Raw. She knew John had been secretly nervous about how he'd be received but the night was quite a success. As everyone talked, Kimberly looked over at Dave. She could tell by the expression on his face he knew he would be going to Smackdown. Both Champs can't be on the same side. Dave was happy for John, but would miss his friends and the thrill of a live show. Kimberly gave Dave a hug and kiss on the cheek. "If you need to say something, I'll listen." That brought a smile to Dave's face.
"I'm fine." Dave said.
"I'm sure you are I'm just throwing that out there." They both chuckled and hugged again.
John's traveling schedule changed immediately and they needed to replan their time together. Raw went to bigger cities and had a tougher schedule. He was also still squeezing in promo time for his CD. After breakfast the next morning Kimberly flew back to Boston and John would meet her there the next day. He needed to go to WWE headquarters for all the contract signings and schedule reviews that came with changing rosters.
The next several months went by and things just kept getting better and better for Kimberly and John. Professionally, he continued to retain his title and was an enormous success on Raw and she opened another club and restaurant. Personally they slowly built what had been crushed. The female involved was released by the WWE and would be gone from their lives. John's friendship with the Hogans also became very important to him. He had fulfilled another life-long dream and was able to wrestle with Hulk at a few Raw shows. John and Kimberly had been the best of friends now for over two years and had been exclusively seeing each other, not including the month-long hiatus, for almost a year. Christmas was two months away and he wanted to do something no man has ever done before for his woman. He enlisted Linda Hogan's help along with Kimberly's assistant, Stephan. Only his parents and Linda and Stephan knew what he was planning. Linda was sworn to secrecy, she couldn't even tell Hulk. All four had specific duties to pull off and deadlines to meet.
The annual WWE Holiday party would be the week before Christmas and was scheduled to be held at Kimberly's Boston restaurant. Everyone was allowed up to four guests, this helped John's plans. The day after the party John and Kimberly would fly to Florida and spend the holidays there. He had a hard time convincing her to go to Florida, but she finally gave in to him. Things seemed to be right on schedule for John's plans.
