After Seth guided CJ to the airport and they shared a goodbye, which was only emotional because of her hormones running rampant, she was on her own on the drive back into Davenport. She made it into town alright, but it was then that she got confused. She couldn't remember if it was the first left or the second left, and then their street name completely escaped her so she couldn't GPS it. But her phone rang and she was quick to answer, not bothering to check the call ID before answering.
"Hello?"
"CJ, my darling. How are you?" That lovely Swiss accent filled her car and she smiled, enjoying listening her fellow Heyman guy.
"Cesaro, it's nice to hear from you. I'm doing quite well, and yourself?"
"Learning everything under the sun from Paul and there's still so much to learn. It's amazing." Cesaro gushed and CJ absently twirled her hair around her index finger as she waited for the light to turn green.
"I have to agree. Being with Heyman is such a rewarding experience. I thought I knew it all, but when I started talking to Paul and Brock, I realized that I didn't know much and felt like I was in NXT." Cesaro chuckled at her admission and CJ scratched at her nose as she looked at a street sign and let out a sigh when she realized just how lost she was.
"Did I offend you by laughing?" Cesaro asked and she shook her head although he couldn't see.
"No, I don't mind that you laughed. I just moved to Iowa to live with Seth, and I really have no idea where we live and I just dropped him off at the airport. I don't even know our address."
"I saw on twitter that you and Seth were dating, congratulations."
"Thank you. Is there a special lady in your life?" CJ asked, making a random right turn and hoping for a good result. "There's a store that could be useful in the future."
"Oh, no, there's no special lady in my life." Cesaro chuckled and CJ smiled. "Unless my espresso machine counts."
"I'd say so. Caffeine is glorious and espressos are probably the equivalent to morning sex in terms of awesome." She joked and Cesaro gave a hearty laugh.
"Paul wants me to ask, how's your recovery going?"
"Uh, it's going well. I don't think I'll be going back to work though." CJ admitted, not looking forward to coming clean about her pregnancy. She felt like Paul would be disappointed, and she didn't want to disappoint Paul.
After a couple seconds of the phone jostling, CJ heard Heyman assure Cesaro that he wouldn't go to far with his phone.
"CJ, you say you won't be returning? Why not?" Paul sounded genuinely concerned, and CJ knew then that she couldn't tell him that she was pregnant. She had to talk to Seth first, since they hadn't discussed when to announce her pregnancy.
"It's a...personal reason. I've got some things to figure out and deal with once I'm done recovering, and work isn't going to be good for me." She explained, lightly drumming on her steering wheel. Paul heaved a sigh, and she knew that he was figuring out his new plan now that the one and only Heyman girl wasn't planning on returning anymore.
"As your advocate, I only want what's best for you. This is something that only you would understand, I take it, so I am not going to pry. Just, wait until you know for sure and don't make it official online just yet."
"You got it, Paul. Thank you for being so understanding."
"I see you as my prodigal daughter, how could I not be understanding? You just focus on getting yourself sorted and if you come back, you'll have me as your manager and advocate, and if you don't you'll have me as a friend." Heyman assured and CJ nodded, despite not fully trusting his word. Advocate or not, you could never fully trust Paul Heyman.
"Can you tell Cesaro that I'll talk to him later? I've got to focus on getting home."
"Of course. Drive safe, CJ." Paul wished before hanging up and CJ sighed, leaning her head back against the headrest as she stopped at yet another red light. The corner of a sheet of paper tucked into her sun visor.
"Seth, you sneaky babe." CJ mumbled with a smile, pulling the note out and reading through its contents. It was just him telling her that he would miss her while he was away, that he loved her, and their address in the p.s at the end. Since the light was a long one for some weird reason, CJ took the time to put in their address and save it into her GPS, knowing that would come in handy in the near future. She then focused completely on driving, waiting until she was parked in the driveway to text Seth her thank you message and, even though it ended up longer than she originally planned, she was proud of herself when she finally stepped out of her car. The key to Seth's house hung on her lanyard proudly, and she remembered how happy Seth was to give her the key with a smile.
This whole "girlfriend" thing isn't half bad. She mused to herself with a smile as she leaned against the car and held the house key in her hand. Sure, it's only been a couple days, but I could get used to this. With that, CJ tossed the lanyard up in the air and caught it on her way up to the front door, smile never fading. She had to call Adam or Beth and give them an update on how she was doing.
When Seth turned his phone on in The Shield's locker room for the night, he was grateful that Dean and Roman weren't there yet so he could sit down and read CJ's text. He knew it would make him smile and he wasn't interested in answering questions about why he was in a good mood. In his opinion, Dean didn't deserve to know how CJ was doing after he left her like that. Absolutely despicable.
'I saw the note you left me and I wanted to thank you for that because I was legitimately lost and couldn't remember our address haha. Anyways I hope your flight was comfortable and I really hope that I didn't bum you out with all my hormones. I really didn't mean to start crying in the car but I'm such a pussy right now it's unbelievable so forgive me. I'll talk to you soon Sethie. :)'
"She's going to be the death of me." Seth mumbled to himself as he typed a quick reply to CJ before shutting his phone off and getting changed into some gym shorts and a muscle shirt, since he wasn't feeling like putting all of his gear on just yet. He just didn't want to be in the room when Dean got there, because he wasn't sure if he had the restraint to not punch Dean in the face the moment he saw the blonde he once considered his best friend. There was no way Seth could call Dean his best friend after the way he hurt CJ.
So the two toned man set off on his search for the key locations of the arena: catering, gorilla, where where the main card was located, and the isle his team would walk down. It took him about twenty minutes to fine and scope everything out before going to catering and grabbing a quick snack. It was then that Seth felt ready to deal with Dean, since he had to have been at the arena by now, but he took his sweet time getting there.
"Where's Ro?" Seth asked when he got into the room and saw Dean pacing the locker room, their Samoan friend nowhere in sight.
"Bathroom." Dean stated simply before coming to an abrupt halt and turning on his heel to face Seth. "I plan on being peaceful during this tour, but there's one thing that you gotta know, Seth."
"What's that?"
"Just because you're playing house with her right now doesn't mean shit. It doesn't change the fact that she's having my kid, not yours, and down the road I know it's going to bother you. She had my baby before yours, and whenever you two fuck, she'll be thinking of me and how I made her feel, because I'm the one she fell in love with."
"Oh yeah?" Seth asked, chuckling a bit. "That's funny. Considering that we just had sex this morning and a lot of four letter words came out of her mouth, Dean, but your name wasn't one of them." He quipped, smirking when he noticed Dean's fist clench. Every single one of Seth's senses was telling him not to turn his back on his ex-best friend, but he did it anyways knowing that Dean wouldn't dare to start a fight at work.
"Don't you turn your back on me!"
"Why not, Dean? That's what you did to her, isn't it?" Seth asked, pausing while he waited to see if Dean would reply to his rhetorical question. Dean only stood there, glaring down Seth. "I'm done with you as a friend. We're still teammates and I'll have your back, but we sure as hell aren't friends."
"Is there a problem here, guys?" Roman asked, looking between his two friends. Dean had his fists clenched at his sides, jaw clenched, and eyes narrowed as he stared down Seth; who was holding his pants tight in one hand and easily made eye contact with Dean. Both were obviously pissed off with one another, and Roman wasn't sure he wanted to know why his best friends were seconds away from being at each other's throats.
"Everything's peachy. Ain't it, Seth?" Dean asked, flashing the fakest smile both men had ever seen, but Seth nodded nonetheless.
"Fuckin' peachy."
It was then that Roman knew that it was going to be a long tour, but he was going to bite his tongue. It wasn't his business until they started throwing punches at each other. It was only then that he'd know for sure if this CJ dilemma was compromising their team, and only when the team was compromised could he step into business that wasn't his own. Things would be easier that way.
At least he hoped so.
'Just go to one of the neighbors and ask. I've had to do it before.'
Seth doesn't realize that asking for sugar is like asking for help. Not exactly my style. CJ thought to herself as she looked around the kitchen, hands gripping the countertop in frustration. Her pride was going to be the death of her, and she knew that. But for the time being, all she really had right now was her pride and she'd like to keep that in tact for as long as possible.
'I don't think I should be drinking coffee anyways. It's no big deal Seth.'
'No more than 200mg of caffeine a day. I just googled it. I'm not going to force you to go ask for sugar but you've got to start putting your pride in your back pocket babe.'
'Thats where your hand goes when we're out in public haha. But yeah I know. I'm working on it. How are things with the dick?'
'Hes... A dick lol. I'm just not going to talk to him unless it's work related.'
'That makes sense. I'm sorry that you're all in the middle of this.'
'Don't be sorry. I'll extend your apology to Roman, but don't apologize to me. If I wasn't okay with this, we wouldn't be together.'
'You're right'
'I know. I'll call you later babe since I have a match. I love you'
'Ditto' CJ wasn't ready to tell Seth that she loved him just yet, and when she finally did she knew that she wanted to tell him face to face and not miles apart. She knew that he knew this and accepted this fact, even though it probably hurt him to know that she wasn't ready to fully open up and love him.
All in due time, Sethie. She mused, starting the coffee machine and heading into the living room. She saw the mail truck drive away and looked to where the mail key hung on a hook. Seth didn't see the point in traveling with his mail key, since he couldn't check his mail from the other side of the country, so he left it by the door.
"Let's go check the mail, Kevin." CJ cooed to the Yorkie before scooping him up in her arms and grabbing the mail key off the hook on her way out the front door. She already knew which mailbox was Seth's, so there wasn't any confusion when she got to the large box.
"Did you just move in?" A woman asked from behind her and CJ jumped in surprise before turning her head to look at the mystery stranger. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"You're fine." CJ assured with an uncomfortable smile, grabbing Seth's mail out of the small cubbie and shutting the box. "I'm CJ, I just moved in with Seth." She introduced herself before stepping out of the way.
"I'm Michelle, I live on the corner. Welcome to the neighborhood."
She doesn't know who I am? This might be the best thing to happen to me. "Uh, thank you, it's certainly a nice looking place. Being honest, I don't do the whole 'white picket fence' environment, so this'll be an adventure."
"Good thing there aren't any white picket fences then, huh?" Michelle asked and CJ nodded, carefully adjusting Kevin in her arms while Michelle adjusted her glasses with a laugh. "We'll get along fine, CJ. I'll let you get to whatever and if you need anything, I am right next door."
"Sounds good. It was great meeting you." CJ said as she started walking away.
"Anything at all."
"I got you."
"And CJ?" Michelle called as she got to the door and the blonde looked back to the brunette. "I'm a huge fan of your wrestling."
Shit. "Thank you."
I'm really excited for Raw tomorrow. I miss having The Shield on my TV.
But amyways, thanks to ArtisticLullaby, UntilNeverDawns, angelsdee327, Dixiewinxwrites12, TaijiaK, ChelleLew, and Sarcastic Nightmare for reviewing the last chapter!