One thing CJ was really good at was keeping up appearances. She may have been ignoring her boyfriend, but she still looked good while she took care of herself and the dogs. She had been getting to know their neighbors and actually saw herself being friends with them in the future. What she didn't see was herself having an emotional breakdown while she laid beside the pool.

They'd been happening frequently since she had her epiphany on the golf course that Wednesday. It was now Monday and the grand total was fourteen. She had broken down into tears fourteen times in four days and she had nobody to turn to since she wasn't going to bother Seth and she definitely wasn't interested in worrying Adam unnecessarily. She couldn't do that anymore. She was almost thirty, and she felt like that was too old to be dumping her problems on her dad. If things got too bad to the point where she couldn't handle herself, then she'd call him. Until then, she'd let him think that everything was fine.

She couldn't help but wonder what she'd be doing right now if she hadn't gotten knocked up, or if she had gotten the abortion like Dean wanted. She'd probably still be in Syracuse; only instead of waiting on Seth to come home, she'd be waiting for Dean. He'd be her boyfriend, though, so he might've dragged her along to Europe with them, despite their ongoing war with Evolution. She had learned through Dean's actions that he liked keeping her close, and she was almost certain that he wouldn't have been able to handle dating her and leaving her in the States while being in Europe.

"I'm a fucking mess." CJ muttered, pushing her sunglasses onto her forehead so she could wipe away her tears. "One big fucking mess after another."

"You seem too put together to be a mess, in my honest opinion." Mikaela called over the fence and CJ sat up to face her dark haired neighbor. "But I could be wrong."

Dead wrong, but I won't fault you for seeing only the facade. CJ thought to herself, shrugging in response to her neighbor's comment. "I tend to be a bit on the dramatic side."

"You should bring your dramatic ass over here for dinner. I accidentally made too much." There was something about her tone that told CJ that she wasn't offering, but in fact demanding that she come over for dinner, so the blonde nodded as she stood. "Thirty minutes."

"I'll be over."

Seth hadn't really heard from CJ, but he heard from Carl and Sadie that she was getting out of the house, walking the dogs, and other things that seemed healthy. Although her lack of contact was pissing him off and worrying him to no end, he had to admit that she was an adult and perfectly capable of taking care of herself. He just couldn't not worry about her. She was a trouble magnet, and being pregnant could possibly cloud her judgement. He just wanted to keep her safe. Unfortunately, he couldn't do much on a totally different continent and he could do much less since she wasn't talking to him.

He knew that things would be tense after he made that comment about her nonexistent relationship with her father, but he didn't expect her to just blatantly ignore him. She had to be more mature than that. But, if there was one thing he had learned about CJ Jericho, she was full of surprises. Some were a bit more surprising than others, but she was still full of plenty of good surprises. But not having heard from her had him in a rut.

He was constantly longing to hear her voice, feel her touch, just feel her presence in general, and she wouldn't just call him back like he had begged her to do in several texts. He just wanted to know that she was doing okay. Reports from his neighbors weren't enough, and he was certain that his worry for his girlfriend was showing through to his teammates. He was constantly checking his phone, withdrawing from his teammates when they weren't at signings or in the ring, and just downright depressed. He knew that he screwed up, but she had no right to make him feel like shit about it.

Dean knew exactly why Seth wasn't being himself. He pissed off CJ and now she wasn't talking to him. It was obvious, since Seth was constantly checking his phone and then cursing. Meaning that he was expecting her to contact him, and she wasn't. Seth may have been his brother, but he was still pleased with Seth's inability to keep her happy. That meant that she'd soon see that Seth couldn't make her happy like he did and would come running back to him. And Dean knew why Seth couldn't make her happy fur long, it was just a shame that neither could see that they were just too differently minded to make a relationship work. Seth and CJ were almost at opposite ends of a spectrum and Dean knew that the younger man could never relate to CJ like he could.

Dean knew that he and CJ were meant to be together, there was just a minor hitch in that major plan. It would take a lot of time and plenty of ass kissing, but CJ would be his once again. Her and their baby. It had taken a lot of thinking by this lonesome, but he figured out what he wanted. He wanted to be with CJ and give their child everything that their fathers didn't give them. He had to make things right with her, first.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Mikaela asked after five minutes of mindless small talk across the table, leaving CJ to shrug and turn her fork in her pasta. "You don't have to, I just figured that with Seth overseas maybe you'd need a listening ear in this time zone."

"I'm not even sure what's going on in my head right now." CJ mumbled, looking up from her plate to Mikaela's dark eyes. Their appearances were so different, hair and eye color being almost like night day compared to one another. Yet CJ felt like their personalities would mesh together nicely. If only she was in the mood to really try to make friends.

"Well, when you do figure it out, I'm willing to listen."

"I appreciate it. How long are you here?"

"Until September. My cousin should be back by then. If not, then November at the latest. Where are you from?"

"I moved here from Syracuse, but I grew up in Winnipeg for the most part." CJ answered, saving the long winded background story for when she trusted Mikaela a bit more. "Yourself?"

"Vegas." Mikaela responded simply, noticing the way CJ looked away. It seemed to her like the mention of Vegas had the blonde's gears start turning and she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her there that she would react that way. She assumed that she'd know in due time and that it had nothing to do with losing money.

"It's the warm weather, huh?"

"I'm a sucker for sunshine."

"I have a friend who moved to Vegas for the warm weather and no taxes." CJ spoke softly, memories of her time in Vegas with Dean flooding her mind and making her want to break down like she had earlier in the day. She knew that she had to get out of there before she made Mikaela pity her for being pregnant and lacking control of her emotions. "I just remembered that I forgot to feed the dogs. Thank you for dinner, I'll see myself out."

Note to self: don't mention Vegas. Mikaela thought to herself as she watched the blonde scurry away, the sound of the front door shutting filling the house briefly. Her temporary neighbor was differently wired and obviously dealing with something difficult.

Definitely an interesting one.

Fifteen. The count was officially at fifteen, and CJ was royally pissed off at herself for it. Just the thought of the dishwater blonde and she was reduced to tears. She wasn't okay with that.

"Why can't I get my shit together?"

Because you're a weak excuse for a woman. Her thoughts were never kind to her these days, and she knew that was probably a really bad thing. But there was nothing she could do about it on her own, and there was nobody she could call to help. This is bad.

She just hoped that she could gain control of her emotions before Seth came home. She didn't want him to see her like that and feel like it was his fault. He'd probably feel like he couldn't leave her alone, and that wasn't something she wanted. She didn't want to be alone, but she didn't want him thinking that she couldn't be alone. She was an adult, not a child, therefore she could be left alone.

At least she hoped.

If it was deemed necessary, she'd probably end getting babysat by his parents. She wasn't interested in becoming a burden for Adam and Beth any more than she already had this year. They had their own child to take care of, they didn't need a twenty eight year old to watch over and keep healthy on top of caring for Lyric. She didn't want that.

What she truly wanted was for her thoughts to make sense again. She wanted to like herself again. She wanted to be able to wrestle and have the championship around her waist again. She wanted to go back to the weekend before Extreme Rules and not sleep with Seth even though he earned it. Maybe even go back to the time she first met Seth and not bang him in the elevator. Maybe that was what sparked all of this.

She just wanted to go back to the start.

I could not stop laughing when Ziggler and Batista were fighting on top of Cole. Hopefully Cole didn't get hurt in that, but it was still fun for me to watch.

Thanks to ArtisticLullaby, Dixiewinxwrites12, Sarcastic Nightmare, UntilNeverDawns, Ubersassynova, LatinaWWEFan, ChelleLew, and TaijiaK for reviewing the last chapter!