Chapter 1John Gets Soft.

"John!" She suddenly squealed , it was reasonable, my hand was sudenly up her shirt.

"Come on Steph." I pulled my hand away and started to kiss her neck. "What are you not in the mood?"

"Damn you John Cena." She laughed and startd to kiss me. I kissed her deeper taking the dominancy in our kiss. We were really getting somewhere when we heard crying. "Oh John she woke up." Steph raced back to the back bedroom to tend to her and Hunter's baby girl Ava.

Her and Hunter got a divorce last year after some difficulties involving the show. Luckily for her and the baby, I was there to put the pieces back together. Stephanie was only seventeen when her and Hunter got married, and he was only twenty. Let's see that would make me fifteen, and I watched closely through worried eyes. Hunter's my brother and I'd seen the way he treated women. He didn't hit then or anything, but he normally just screwed them and left them. But he fell head over heels in love with Steph, I don't blame him. She is really easy to love, trust me I do. My brother just got worn down too easily. After Vince found out Steph was pregnant, he got pissed. Though Steph and Hunter had been together for two years, he didn't think his nineteen year old daughter was ready for kids. I began to really worry about their relationship, Hunter crumbles under pressure, and Vince just kept adding more and more to his already heavy load. A year after Ava was born Hunter left. He couldn't take it, so he gave up. She came to me the night he left, crying.

FLASHBACK

"Steph what's wrong?"

"He left. He was gone when I got home."

"Honey, are you ok?"

"He left me a note, i can keeo the baby, but he wants the house. Can I stay here?"

"Of course you can."

END FLASHBACK

Stephanie came out holding Ava. "She's hungry." I stood up automatically and went to the kitchen.

"Bottle or food?"

"Bottle." I heated the bottle and brought it back out. "Want to feed her?" I nodded and smiled. Steph shifted the baby to my arms and I kissed them both. Ava started to eat and I laid with her. Steohanie sat down and put my head in her lap. "You make a great uncle."

"I don't want to be an uncle anymore."

"You can't get out of it, it's blood."

"She's young enough, we could change that."

"John, I don't understand."

I sat up and took the sleeping baby back to bed. When I came back I dimmed the lights and turned on the radio. I slowly and slightly leaned over her. "May I have this dance?" I reached out and she slipped her hand in mine. We wrapped out arms around each other and rocked back and forth.

"Johnny, I really don't understand." She lifted her head off my shoulder. "Please explain."

"I love this song, just dance." I placed my hand on the back of her neck and twirled her hair. She laid her head down and filled the little space that was between us we had. When the song was over we stood there, continuing to hug, both of us waiting for me to talk. "Stephanie, you are the light that guides me, the girl that holds me. You are the shine in my eyes, the stars in my night, though I will stay hard and true, may I marry you?" I dropped to one knee and held only her left hand.

"Oh, John I don't know what to say." She smiled and I slipped the ring on her finger.

"Then say what it is you need to say." I stood back up and kissed her. "That would be a yes or no." I joked.

"You're my ex-husbands brother." She whispered.

"Don't go holding that against me. I'm not anything like him. He's not ready to settle down, I fell in love with you and in all rality we have been settled down."

"John, I'm not angry. And you shouldn't be either. You're not anything like him, I know. but after my frst marriage, everything with relationships, I don't know, I'm really skeptical." She kissed me quickly and pulled away, I slightly tightened my grip but she wigled out. "I'm going to think and probably drnk, I'll be back." She grabbed her purse and keys and practically ranout the door. With nothing better to do now I made myself comfortable and laid on the couch. After flipping through the channels a few times I figured there was nothing on T.V so I went to bed.

When I woke up the next morning Steohanie wasn't in bed so I felt the sheets. Cold. Either she didn;t come home or she didn't come to bed. I grabbed my sweats and stretched my way out of the bedroom. I tiptoed to the baby's room, she ws still sleeping. "Steph?" I quietly called. Nothing. "Honey?" Still nothing. I approached the kitchen slowly and carefully in case she was still asleep. But I didn't smell anything, and she almost always cooked breakfast, there wasn't even coffee in the air. I went through the dining room and noticed the paper wasn't on the table. My last hope was that she had passed out on the couch, as awful as that sounds I was really hopeful it happened. I creeped into the living room afraid f what I'd find. I shouldn't have worried, I didn't find anything.

She hadn't come home. I pulled out my phone and called her best friend Torrie. "Hey it's John, have you seen or heard from Steph?"

"No." Was her simple answer, we didn't really like each other.

"Bitch." It was then I started to really freak. I tried a few more people I thought she'd run too, but when no one answered, or had an answer, I gave up n resources and went out looking for her myself. I dressed Ava, and ut her in her carseat, then I started the truck and drove away. When I got down the hill I blew. "Where the hell could she have gone!" I shouted. The baby startd crying and I pulled over. "I'm sorry honey, your mom is worrying me." I gave her a pacifier and she stopped crying. "Shh, daddy's good girl." I guess the baby snapped me into reality, I not only neded to find my girlfriend I needed to find her mom. I stopped at every bar in town, showing pictures asking questions, but no one had seen her. I had one bar left a sports bar called Teri Mae's "Have you seen this woman?"

"Yeah, she was in here last night. Little late, she left at around 11:30."

"Please tell me that she left alone."

"Yeah, what you her boyfriend?"

"Which way did she go?" I asked, avoiding that question.

"The way you came, towards San Jose and Concord. You guys live that way?"

"Yeah, off four, right before it turns into 242."

"You hear all those sirens last night?"

"Sirens?" I leaned onto the bar a little more. "What for?"

"There was a bad accident, 3 people died. 2 ladies and a little boy."

"What kinda car?"

"I don't know. Couldn't tell. They were pretty beat up."

"Shit," I mumbled. "thanks girly." I left there and headed for the nearest hospital. I had a bad feeling that she was hurt, or dead.