Dean came home to an empty feeling house and he knew why. Seth had called and rambled an explanation and apology for upsetting CJ, and CJ had called him shortly after he got off the phone begging him to come home. He knew that Seth hadn't left, because the younger man had nowhere to go and he knew that CJ was holed up in either the nursery or in their bedroom with the baby.
He was already tired of the shit and it was only the second day. But he wasn't putting Seth on the street while he was in need, that wasn't how he did things and Seth owing him a big favor wasn't too bad of a thing. He knew that CJ was a bit sensitive and that Seth probably didn't think what he said would cross a line. He couldn't exactly fault Seth for not knowing, especially since Dean himself had no clue that bringing up wanting things to have happened differently would set her off since they had discussions like that once a week at the very least.
"Let's get this stuff downstairs, and then I'll deal with the civil unrest." Dean suggested, heading for the basement. He was surprised to hear and eventually see that Seth made himself at home in the basement, but he didn't mind in the slightest. "I'd say 'make yourself at home', but you've already done that."
"Sorry. I hate fighting with her and I can't drink it off so this was the best alternative."
"I don't mind. I'll calm her down and we will talk about what happened like the adults that we are."
"Since when do you mediate, Ambrose?" Roman asked, looking to the blonde in mild surprise as he set down the punching bag.
"It's my house. It's kinda my job, is it not?"
"True, I guess. It's just not like you to willingly put yourself into other people's issues." The Samoan commented, earning a shrug from the blonde as he started back up the stairs.
"That's so not Dean, though." Seth commented, stopping the treadmill and stepping down. "To just-"
"Her issues are his issues now and he really doesn't want things to be awkward when it's just the three of you, the baby, and the dogs."
When Dean made it upstairs, he heard CJ in the nursery tending to Olivia and took a deep breath to prepare himself for the conversation he was about to have with her. He knew that he had to make sure not to sound like he was taking Seth's side, if he didn't then he'd probably be sleeping on the floor and he really didn't want that. He was going to make tonight the night where he got to make love to her, and he wouldn't get that if he made Seth's mistake worse.
"We're home." He called softly, leaning against the doorframe to watch his girlfriend lay down their daughter. She only looked up at him once she had Olivia laid down and he could tell that she had been crying. "Sweetheart, what's the matter?"
"Seth. It wasn't what he said, it was what I started thinking about after he said it."
"What did you start thinking about?"
"If he hadn't turned and how different our lives would be and it scared me, Dean. I don't want to not have all of you."
"Christina, baby, how many times do I have to tell you that we were meant to be?" He asked, pulling her into his arms and holding her close to his chest. "No matter what happened, we'd end up together somehow. And, before you ask, I really think so."
"I owe Seth an apology, don't I?"
"He owes you one, too. He toed over a line and you overreacted. But it's okay because everybody overreacts and he didn't know that was an off-limits topic. We all make mistakes."
"You're right. Did you pick up dinner?"
"We did. We got Thai food."
"Sounds yummy. Oh, Brock wants to teach me the Kimura Lock, if that's alright with you."
"That's fine, sweetheart. Let's go apologize to Seth and eat some dinner. Then we're going straight to bed, ab day tomorrow."
"That means crunches, doesn't it?"
"And a lot of them after your doctor's appointment."
"Great." CJ mumbled sarcastically, stopping when she remembered Seth's earlier request to train her. She honestly felt bad about how everything had happened, and she knew that Seth was feeling bad as well. "Can you bring up teaching me new tricks to Seth? That's what we were talking about before-"
"I was going to ask regardless of your little argument, sweetheart." Dean assured, starting to guide her down the stairs. "Your father won't see any Rollins tricks coming, but things that you could learn from me and Roman he could easily scout and avoid."
"Smart man." She praised, patting his chest gently as they continued down the stairs. "Did you get the crab things?"
"How could I not? You love those."
"So do Seth and Roman so I hope you got a lot."
"Yes we did, babygirl." Roman assured, patting her head gently as he entered the dining room. "Seth says he wants to get one more mile in before he eats."
"That's fine." Dean spoke before CJ could object, knowing that she'd pull Seth from the basement herself if she had her choice. "The best way to kick a habit is to work it out. I would know."
"You would?" She asked quietly, looking up at her boyfriend in confusion.
"We'll discuss it later." He whispered in her ear before pulling a chair out for her. "Sit. I'll get the plates."
"Thank you, Dean."
Dinner flowed smoothly, Seth sitting down to join them twenty minutes later after showering. He was quiet for the most part, only speaking to ask for something to be passed to him and thanking the others for dinner. CJ looked across the table to Dean, tilting her head towards Seth to silently hint the blonde to make conversation.
"Hey, Seth, wanna teach 'Stina how to stomp her sperm donor's head through cinderblocks?"
"Dean!" She hissed, kicking his shin under the table. He only winced and leaned down to rub his new injury while Roman chuckled and Seth looked between the couple in mild astonishment. He knew Dean was blunt, but he wasn't sure if that was a dig at him for the curb stomp he gave Dean after SummerSlam.
"It's fine, CJ." Seth spoke up, looking her in the eye for the first time since their small argument. "At least I think. That wasn't a dig, was it?"
"It wasn't." Dean stated, still rubbing his shin. "I'm not buying you new kickpads now. Your feet are just fine."
"I'll buy you some, babygirl." Roman piped in, winking at CJ and noting the blush on her cheeks at the term of endearment. So he added fuel to that fire and gently pinched her cheek, earning a friendly swat from the blonde woman.
"I'd love to teach her how." Seth stated, bringing the conversation back to its original topic. "Along with some other moves."
CJ couldn't help but be curious as to what he had in mind, but didn't question it. Instead, she went back to her dinner and lightly tapped Dean's foot with her own. He looked over at her and smiled, silently assuring her that he wasn't mad at her for kicking him before making a comment about the current football season. Football was a foreign language to her, all she knew what that she and Dean were Bengals fans and that's all she really needed to know, so she just listened to the boys bicker over which of their teams was better until she finished eating.
"Can we talk about baseball or hockey? Y'know, the sports that make sense?"
"How the hell does hockey make more sense than football? They push each other around and get in fights on ice." Seth commented, looking to CJ when she smirked.
"You guys get into fights in hot arenas, is there much of a difference?"
"You do it, too." Roman pointed out, to which CJ held a finger up.
"I'm semi-retired." She reasoned before picking up her plate. "Sethie, you're just pissed because the Cubs haven't won the World Series since the early nineteen hundreds. Nineteen-o-eight, if I'm not mistaken. That's like a hundred and five years, in case you were wondering."
"Have the Blue Jays ever won the Series?"
"She's converted to the Reds." Dean commented and CJ flipped him off from the kitchen.
"I'm a Pete Rose fan, not a Reds fan. And, to answer your question Rollins, the Blue Jays won back-to-back in ninety-three and ninety-two so suck on that."
"Fucking Canadians." The youngest of the group grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're taking over wrestling and you're taking over baseball."
"They're not taking over wrestling." Roman defended, to which Dean and Seth shook their heads. "Bet you can't name twenty and she can't help."
"CJ, Adam, Jay, the sperm donor, Natalya-" Dean listed, counting on his fingers as Seth continued.
"Hitman, Jim The Anvil, Owen Hart, Beniot-"
"Lance Storm, Santino, Pat Patterson, Maryse, isn't Gail Kim Canadian?"
"She was." CJ piped in, smirking at Roman.
"Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith, Trish Stratus, Mad Dog Vachon, Viktor, and Kevin Steen."
"Alright, fine." Roman conceded, watching as CJ did Daniel Bryan's signature "yes" chant. Dean watched her in amusement, while Seth noticed the look in Dean's eye. There was nothing but love in those blue eyes and Seth wished that he could look at CJ like that again.
"We didn't really take over... Since we've kinda ruled it from the beginning." CJ stated once she had finished celebrating and all three men rolled their eyes. "You can make those faces all you like, that doesn't change the fact that Canada is better than the US."
"Yet you live here?" Roman asked, raising an eyebrow at her statement.
"Dean doesn't like the cold."
"I just don't know, Dean." CJ mumbled from where she stood in the closet, going through his shirts for something to wear to bed. "I'm not-"
"You're perfect, Christina." He stated, sitting up from his relaxed position on the floor to look at her. She only looked down at him, uncertainty in her eyes while she bit her lip, her hand moving to rest on her stomach as he shuffled towards her on his knees. He stopped in front of her before pinning her wrists to her sides and looking up at her. Once he had eye contact he kissed all around her stomach, trying to convey to her that the small amount of baby fat didn't bother him in the slightest. "I can't live off of amazing blow-j's. I need to be inside you, sweetheart."
"But I'm not ready for that yet, Dean. I need to get on birth control before I can be totally comfortable having sex. I don't want to take chances."
"And you're not just using that as an excuse because you feel your body is inadequate?"
"I'm not, I swear. You love me for me, not my body."
"Don't you forget it." He murmured as he stood, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"I don't think you'll ever let me." She whispered as he pulled her close, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I love you, Ambrose."
"I love you, too, Copeland."
"I'm gonna go get some water, did you want anything from downstairs?"
"Can you see if I left my phone down on the table? I just noticed that it isn't in my pocket."
"Of course. I'll be back."
Seth heard the footsteps coming down the stairs and knew that it was CJ, since Dean and Roman had way heavier footfalls. He was anxious to apologize, but he didn't know why his hands were shaking so badly. Surely he wasn't nervous about such a thing. It was just CJ and he was certain that he'd apologized to her about a thousand times for one thing or another over the couple years that he'd known her.
"Oh, Seth, I thought you'd be sleeping."
"I can't sleep. I dunno why."
"It's probably because you're withdrawing from the alcohol. It'll get better."
"How do you know?" He asked, hands gripping the kitchen counter in an attempt to hide their shakiness from the blonde as she got Dean's phone from the table.
"My mom had an alcohol dependency when I was younger. That's why you're shaky, too, Seth."
"I thought I was panicking." He admitted quietly, watching from the corner of his eye as she reached for a glass.
"You'd know if you were panicking. Anyways, since we're both down here, I owe you an apology."
Seth was stunned, to say the very least. He crosses a line and she apologizes? That's not how things worked- especially not with her. She, CJ Jericho or Christina Copeland or whatever she called herself, did not admit fault. Ever. This is why the only words he was able to come up with were not only stammered, but gave away just how confused he was. "For what?"
"I overreacted and probably hurt your feelings. I just- I started thinking about life had you not turned and it scared me because it was a life without Dean for some reason and it was terrifying. I panicked and- yeah."
"CJ, sweetheart, it's fine." Seth assured, releasing the counter so he could face her. "I should be apologizing because I crossed a line. I never should've brought it up like that and for that I'm so sorry."
"It's alright, Sethie." CJ whispered before taking a drink of her water. "Are you even stable?"
"I'm fine." He tried arguing, but she had already moved so that she could support him if he were to fall.
"You're not. I'm making you a doctor's appointment in the morning."
"Why?"
"Because there's gotta be a way to make this easier on your body. You're shaking and sweating, Sethie. That's not good for you at all." She scolded as she started guiding him to the living room. "I know you can't sleep but you need to lay down and there's no way I can get you up the stairs by myself."
"You're too good to me, babe. I don't deserve any of this."
"This is kind of like the time when we got into that really bad fight and I called you a 'horse fucking farm boy from bumble-fuck Iowa' and then got plastered with the girls and you ended up taking care of me." She reasoned, dumping him on the couch. Of course, his grip on her shirt caused her to fall on top of him and she yelped in surprise at being so close to his face for the first time in what felt like forever.
"I'm so sorry." Seth whispered, still gripping her shirt in his fist. She hadn't tried to move, she didn't even consider it to be an option at first because it felt good to be so close to Seth again. Just because he had turned into a huge corporate douche didn't mean that she stopped loving him.
"I shouldn't have just dropped you." CJ disregarded his apology, voice soft as she took in just how broken Seth looked. His once bright brown eyes had dulled and were slightly bloodshot. He just didn't look like her Sethie and it bugged her. She wanted so badly to help him. "I'm gonna go get Dean and he can help you to bed."
"Thank you, CJ. For everything." He spoke softly, his tone showing just how grateful he was for all of her help. She only nodded as she sat up, gently patting his chest before getting completely off of him and heading for the stairs.
"I like to think that you'd do the same for us if we needed you." She murmured, smiling back at Seth one last time before starting up the stairs. "Dean should be down in a moment."
Thank you to ChelleLew, ItReignsJustice-619, AyeBlaney, UntilNeverDawns, Damnitambrose, TajiaK, and Sarcastic Nightmare for reviewing! I'd bake cookies for you but those can't be sent by the internet.