Dean Ambrose was not a happy man.
The schedule of appearances and such outside of live events had been finalized for the year, and he wasn't appearing with the mother of his child at all until December and it was barely going on August. She would, however, be with Seth at almost every single one of her appearances. He knew it was planned by The Authority, which was why he was so pissed off about it. At the end of the day, Olivia would be suffering the most with her parents doing two different things at times and he knew that they weren't thinking like that. They were trying to drive a wedge into the Heyman family by trying to break up him and CJ, but it wasn't going to work. Dean couldn't let that happen.
"What's that?" CJ asked, looking over his shoulder to see just what had him clutching his phone so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. "Appearance schedule, huh? Let me guess, they've got us separated?"
"Until fucking December when we're doing Tribute to the Troops and shit like that."
"Well then. That's unfortunate."
"That's all you have to say?"
"What else do you want me to say, Dean? We can't change it, god knows The Authority isn't going to change it, so we'll have to accept it." She spoke, kissing his cheek as she locked his phone and pried it from his hand. "You have to help me put that desk together and I'd like to have it done before Olive wakes up from her nap."
Her words snapped him from his haze of anger, reminding him that this was their day off. The one day a week that he devoted to his girls, and the one day a week that he actually had to deal with home renovation things that CJ wanted done. Like turning one of the guest bedrooms into a home office. He didn't know what they needed it for, but it was what CJ wanted done so she was going to get it done.
"You're with Seth for all of your appearances, y'know." He mumbled as they started up the stairs and CJ shrugged, not really caring either way.
"Better than Kane. I know it bugs you, babe, but you've got to trust in me and Seth."
"I never said that I didn't trust your or Seth."
"You did when you brought up the fact that all of my appearances are with him." She got him there. He knew that and was man enough to admit that. But could he be blamed for still being a bit insecure in their relationship with Seth around? The guy was still madly in love with CJ and it was painfully obvious to everyone around them. This was why The Authority put them together, did CJ not see that? Or did she not care? "Look, Dean, everything is going to be fine. These things don't start 'til after SummerSlam week anyways, so we've got time to figure it all out. Please just relax and let it go for now. Enjoy our Wednesday."
"You're right."
"Aren't I always?" She asked with a smirk, gently shoving Dean into the room and shutting the door behind her. "Now let's get this done, yeah?"
"Why do we need a home office?"
"To handle fan mail and stuff once my website goes live. We already have the P.O. box set up, but I'd like to keep our work stuff in one room that isn't our bedroom or the dining room."
"You're doing a website?"
"Paul knows a guy who's setting everything up for me. It'll be great. Selling merch, pictures, getting fan mail, giving my fans exclusive updates...stuff like that." She rambled, sitting down on the floor to open the box that her desk had come in. "I'm actually pretty excited about the whole thing."
"I can tell, and I'm excited for you." He didn't sound all that excited, and CJ figured that he was still trying to get over the whole debacle around their appearance schedule so she let it slide. If this happened for the rest of the day, however, she'd start getting pissy back until he fixed his attitude. It was something that was out of their hands and they couldn't control it, so why fuss over it? There were other things that they should be worrying about, like Olivia's first birthday and what they were going to do with her while they were doing the European Tour and during Tribute to the Troops stuff. Also, his mother had been quiet and that worried the Canadian. Was she planning something big or did she just give up?
"Yeah, let's just do this."
An hour later had CJ holding Olivia and watching from her office chair as Dean finished putting her desk together. She had been talking to both her boyfriend and their daughter about what she wanted to put in the room for simple decor and work purposes while Olivia babbled with her and Dean just smiled as he listened to his two girls talk.
"Babe, we're going to have to start really baby proofing the house now that she's started crawling and doing that kinda walking but not quite thing."
"Oh, her table clinging? Do you want to go grab that stuff today so its done?" She asked, tickling Olivia's stomach while looking over her now finished desk at he boyfriend as he stood. "I mean, it's still pretty early in the day so we could do that and be home in time to cook dinner, and then we could set everything up after we get her to bed."
"And then we could spend tomorrow packing and making sure all of our ducks are in a row for the house show circuit."
"We're not on house shows this weekend." CJ spoke slowly, pulling her phone from her pocket to open her calendar. "Paul told me that he got us taken off the shows so my shoulder could properly heal a bit."
Dean nodded, seeing the email from Paul as well as the confirmation email from Talent saying that they had the weekend off. This was better than he expected it to be, having the weekend off to sit and watch his daughter work on learning to walk while helping CJ recover from her shoulder injury. She wasn't competing until SummerSlam at the earliest, giving her roughly two weeks to recover before facing off against Stephanie McMahon. Now that the match had been confirmed for the second biggest pay-per-view event off the year, the semi-main event no less, CJ had to spend more of her time working on healing completely and and training the rest of her body hard so that she was good to go on one of the biggest nights of her career.
"Dude, this means Saturday sex."
"Don't 'dude' me while talking about sex." She laughed, standing from her chair and using her free arm to gently rock the desk to check the sturdiness. "We'll have to break it in later."
"Glady." Dean spoke with a smirk, pulling Olivia out of CJ's arm and lifting her up so her could kiss her stomach, then her nose, before nuzzling into her neck and holding her close. "But yeah, we should head out and get that stuff now since we'll be home all weekend."
"Remind me to call Adam sometime tomorrow about seeing if he can hang onto Olive while we're overseas and doing Tribute to the Troops stuff."
"That's in like three months, though."
"I need time to work out everything so its foolproof." CJ explained as they entered the nursery to change Olivia into a clean shirt. "Do me a favor and shave tomorrow?"
"Yeah, yeah." Dean muttered, opening Olivia's shirt drawer and scanning through the possibilities. Nothing really stood out to him though, so he shut that drawer and opened another. "Can we put her in a dress, babe?"
"Sure, if that's what you want." She spoke with a slight shrug, laying Olivia down on the changing table and smiling as she blew raspberries on the infant's stomach. "Make sure you grab-"
"A pair of little shorts for under the dress. Yeah, I know."
"Can you stop being a grump, Dean? I know you're upset, but don't let their shitty planning ruin our weekend."
"You're right, I'm sorry." He sighed, bringing over the pale yellow dress and white shorts for Olivia while CJ worked on changing her diaper. He noticed her trying her hardest to not use her injured arm for anything and let out a sigh, stepping in to finish changing Olivia's diaper and her clothes. "How long has it been bothering you today?"
"It just started to hurt right now. I think I might have moved my arm weird while grabbing a diaper from the box and that's what irritated it." She explained, holding onto her injured shoulder while trying her hardest to not grimace in pain. Dean was watching her and she didn't want him to worry about her. He had enough on his mind already, he didn't need to worry about anything else and further drag down his mood.
"Can you run to the bedroom and grab my wallet off the nightstand?" She didn't give a response, instead just leaving the nursery to do as Dean asked and stepping into the closet to grab her sling. She didn't want to wear it, but she knew that she had to. She needed to protect her shoulder as much as she possibly could during this weekend and, if her shoulder was hurting, then she just needed to rest it in the sling for a while. There was no fault in it, she just didn't like wearing the sling. It made her look weak and she felt weak too.
She met Dean downstairs and handed him his wallet, heading out to the car before he had time to comment on her wearing the sling. She felt like she looked ridiculous with the sling, but she supposed that she couldn't run from it forever.
"I proud of you for taking initiative like that, babe." Dean spoke as he buckled Olivia into her carseat. She shrugged, sitting down in the passenger's seat and starting the car so she could turn the air conditioner on. "I know you don't like the sling, but you're wearing it anyway. You and I both know that if this had been you two years ago, you wouldn't have put on the sling."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm growing up." CJ muttered, getting a laugh out of her boyfriend as he got into the car. "I feel ridiculous in this thing."
"I think you look cute." He commented, opening the garage door before looking over at her. "That pout just makes you adorable."
"Shut up."
"I don't think we need bumpers for the coffee table." CJ voiced her opinion, looking at the box Dean was holding in front of her face. From her spot in her mother's free arm, Olivia let out a yell before swatting at the box and Dean rolled his eyes playfully. "She doesn't think she needs it either."
"But what if she hits her head?"
"She hasn't yet."
"But it's a possibility. Just because she hasn't yet doesn't mean that she won't." He argued, gently running his hand over Olivia's head. "I think we should get them for while she's still in the unsteady phase."
"How often are we really at home, though? I just think it'll be a waste of money for us to buy this thing for the coffee table when we're only home two days a week on average and she spends most of her time everywhere but the living room." She reasoned, adjusting Olivia in her arm and kissing her head. "If you really think that we need it then put it in the cart, but I really don't think that we need it. My concern is gates, cabinet locks, door knob covers, and outlet covers."
"I'll have to mull this one over." Dean decided, tossing it into the cart and kissing Olivia's head. "It might be going a little overboard, but I just want to protect her and her still forming head."
"And I can respect that but, at the same time, we don't need bumpers for the coffee table if she's never in the living room."
"What if she starts wandering away from us?"
"That's why we're getting gates."
"Whatever, CJ." Dean sighed, taking Olivia away from the Canadian and holding her up to be at eye level with him. The infant grinned at him, putting a much needed smile onto her father's face as they had a staredown. "You aren't allowed to get hurt or else I'll make you grow up in a wheelchair, young lady."
"Dean, you can't ban her from learning to walk." CJ laughed, looking around to see another couple looking absolutely mortified at Dean's comment. "He's not going to handicap her, move along."
"The nerve of some people, huh?" Dean asked, putting Olivia in the seat of the cart so CJ wouldn't have to carry her. "Wonder if that'll hit the dirt sheets."
"Let's hope not. The last thing we need is people telling us how to raise our child on top of everything else we currently have to deal with." She reasoned, wrapping her good arm around his waist while he started to push the cart down the aisle. "We should rent a movie tonight, babe."
"I thought we were having sex tonight?"
"Netflix and chill, then?" She asked, grinning up at her boyfriend as he looked down at her in confusion.
"How does that equate to having sex?"
"It's a joke. Maybe a meme? I dunno, but it's basically code for having sex these days." She explained, shrugging as Dean shook his head.
"You're going to be banned from social media at this rate if you keep up with all of this new age slang that the kids are spitting out." He teased, lightly tugging on her ponytail as they walked. "'Netflx and chill', fuck outta here. Just say that you plan on gettin' it on, y'know?"
"Yeah, I suppose." CJ murmured, stopping to grab a few packs of the outlet covers. "I want a TV for the office."
"We'll pick one up over the weekend." Dean assured, kissing Olivia's forehead and whispering to the infant about how needy her mother was. "We should get some more teething things for her, just in case we lose some on the road."
"If you're in charge of packing, then we most likely will." CJ teased, earning herself another tug on her ponytail. Her mission for the weekend was to keep him in a good mood, just so when they saw Seth on Monday their conversation about the appearance schedule would be civil. She just had to keep Dean happy.
No big deal, right?
I am SO sorry about that super long and totally unintentional hiatus. I went on a vacation to washington back in early August to go see Fall Out Boy live and go to Warped Tour with a friend of mine. I came back and totally just blanked everything and had no inspiration to write anything and I am so sorry for this shitty filler chapter.
Anyways, I'd like to thank KairiAnneYukari21, meredith757, theShield757, Carolyn, AJPunk757, moeshellz757, Punkwetrusting7, AriesPhenominal, Imagineer1392, Sarcastic Nightmare, calwitch, ItReignsJustice-619, and Pinayprincesa for reviewing the last chapter!
Also, this story went over 1,000 reviews on the last chapter, so I just wanted to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone for taking the time to read and review this story. If I could hug you guys like Bayley, I would do it in an instant.