Disclaimer: All the events and character description taken place in this story is COMPLETELY FICTION. No copyright infringement intended. All characters are copyrighted to their respective owners. No profit is being made from this story. It should be viewed only as entertainment.

Chapter Thirty-Six

"Mommy!" Aurora piped with excitement at the sight of her mother finally emerging from the beach house. She was still in her father's arms while Linda was still trying to sooth Andrew.

"Hi sweetie." Steph answered back in a weak voice before flashing a small smile toward her daughter. Her voice caused her one year old son to look in her direction and extend her arms in to her.

Stephanie was slow in her stride. Kurt was following her closely behind holding Kody in his right muscular arm and holding Kyra's hand with his free left hand. Steph's vomiting had finally relented and she was quick to get back outside to be with her children. Still, she was nowhere near one hundred percent.

"You all right, Steph?" Asked Paul when Steph got closer to where he was standing with their daughter.

His former wife looked very pale; as if all the color from her face had melted away with the hot Florida sun. Levesque was willing to put aside her hurt feelings from being slapped by her in order to inquire about her health.

"I'll be fine." Steph managed to mutter in reply to Paul.

Had Levesque been privy to how sick she was in the bathroom, he wouldn't be asking if she was all right. Still, it was somewhat surprising that he was actually concerned about her and not throwing himself around because of the somewhat red hand mark she gave him on the side of his face. Steph was in no mood to fight with her ex. In fact, she was doing her best to not show any sides of how terrible she was feeling. Stephanie knew both sets of eyes of her children were upon her. She didn't want to scare them because Mommy was so under the weather.

"He's still here?" Kurt asked his mother-in-law as he pointed his finger directly at Paul.

Angle was surprised that his brother-in-law did not mention that Steph's ex-husband was still on the back deck. Kurt thought for sure Vince would have escorted Levesque off the property after his vulgar remark. Since he and Stephanie had decided to postpone the gift opening until tomorrow, there really was no reason for Paul to still be there.

"Yeah, I'm still here." Paul said directly back to Angle after a moment of awkward silence.

The first automatic thought that popped into Levesque's head was to be quick to fire back a venomous retort in Angle's direction. Luckily for him, unlike earlier, he was able to get a grip of his emotions, and not take the bait. Another mean outburst would likely award him with another slap to the face courtesy of his former wife. That is if Steph even had enough energy to do so. She looked weak and definitely not herself. The last thing she needed was another fight between him and Angle.

"Did he not get his full nap? I don't want to hold him and risk the chance of giving him this bad stomach bug I have." Stephanie told her mother while focusing on her youngest child who was still reaching for her and whining. Steph hadn't even noticed the words exchanged between both her current and former lover.

"I don't know what's wrong with him. I came back from putting the cake away and he was bawling his eyes out." Steph's mother explained.

Linda's testimony caused Kurt to shift his eyes from his crying youngest son to Levesque. Angle couldn't help but wonder what Paul did to his son while he was the only adult on the back deck. He should have told his mother-in-law not to leave the baby alone with him, but would she take him seriously? Compared to the rest of Steph's family, Linda definitely had a higher opinion about Paul Levesque. She probably wouldn't believe him if he told her that he suspected Paul of pushing his son off of a couch several weeks ago, after all, even Steph didn't want to believe it about her ex.

"Come here to your daddy, little man. I want to hold both of my boys." Angle said with a loving smile as he let go of his daughter's hand and held the free arm out to signal for Linda to hand him his youngest child.

The moment Linda handed the baby over to his father; he let out a loud whine and arched his back in Stephanie's direction. Going to his father only made him that much closer to where his mommy was standing. He was getting upset that he wasn't being held by her.

"He loud, Dad." Kody commented placing his hands over his ears in an attempt to shield them from his little brother's crying.

Steph couldn't take it anymore; she hated seeing her youngest child crying for her attention. It was clear that all his crying and whining was because he wanted to be with her. In one quick swoop, she took him from her husband and into her own arms. Like magic, the one year old's crying immediately ceased.

"What was all that crying about, birthday boy, huh? Why weren't you happy staying with Granny or Daddy? Do you want Mommy to get you sick? That won't be good." Steph told her baby with the most energy and inflection that she had shown since she returned outside.

Aurora's eyes were focused right on her mommy. She was watching how much individual attention the baby was getting. Why didn't her mommy come over and get her from her daddy? After all, she was the first one who even called out for her mommy. Baby Andrew was only crying because he wanted her toy, that was no reason for her mommy to give him any special attention.

"Mommy, I want hugs too!" Aurora whined leaning out toward her mother, away from her father just like Andrew had done.

Great, why did both of her children want to cling to her while she obviously was sick with a stomach virus? If Aurora and Andrew came down with what she had, it would definitely be bad. Hell, it was bad enough for Stephanie who was a grown woman. She couldn't imagine her three and one year old dealing with it. Andy was a baby; she couldn't get around having close contact with him. Aurora Rose on the other hand, needed to stay in her daddy's arms. Hopefully with a clear explanation of the situation, she would understand and be a big girl.

"No, Aurora, stay with your daddy. Mommy doesn't feel good at all. I'm worried that whatever I have you could give it to you." Steph told her little girl to justify why she was going to hold her as well.

"Why Andy get hugs and not me?" The three year old asked in a whine.

Paul brought his face close to the side of his daughter's. His nose nestled into her brown locks of hair as whispered into her ear so that only she could hear what he had to say to her:

"See, Mommy loves Andy more because he's her new baby that replaces you. Just like Kurt is trying to replace Daddy."

His words caused Aurora to turn and look directly into her daddy's eyes. The little girl's blue eyes were immediately starting to glaze over with tears as she flashed her daddy a heart breaking look that showed just how perplexed she was with his assertion.

"It's okay, angel, Daddy loves you." Levesque said in a loud enough voice that he could be heard by the present company on the back deck. It was this claim that he wanted others to hear. After professing his love for his child, he pulled her into a hug which she gladly accepted.

Stephanie couldn't help but feel her heart melt with happiness at the sight of her ex-husband showing love to their little girl. Steph was sure that whatever he had whispered in their daughter's ear, it was worthy of a hug.

She had to hand it to Paul, he could go from one moment being in her mind, a selfish insensitive prick that needed a slap across the face, to the next, an adoring father who actually resembled the man she had fallen in love with. It was the sight of seeing Aurora being hugged tightly in her daddy's muscular arms that made her not regret inviting Levesque to the party in the first place. With all the family drama that had taken place earlier, it all well worth it to see her little girl bonding with her father.

"Paul? When did we get off the boat? Did you carry me?"

Levesque as well as everyone else on the back deck turned their attention to Barbie Blank who had awoken from her drunken induced sleep. She kept looking around before bringing her eyes back to Paul. It was obvious she didn't have any memory of staggering off the boat and passing out at the table on the back deck.

"I didn't carry you. You walked back here and passed out right where you are sitting." Paul replied back, explaining what he had thought to be the obvious.

Levesque rolled his eyes at his date before turning away so that she was no longer in his sight. The woman was a complete idiot with and without alcohol on board. Bringing her along as his date was definitely the biggest mistake he had made in a long time. She was like a splinter festering in his big toe; a small annoying nuisance that was had burrowed its way under the skin and was hard to remove. Too bad she didn't fall overboard during Vince's hell ride; he couldn't have gotten that lucky.

"Paul, I have the worst headache in the world. Can we just go get a hotel? I really need to lie down." Kelly Kelly whined in what sounded like a pouty voice of his three year old daughter and not a grown woman.

Steph couldn't help but cut her eyes at the twenty-two year old. Her behavior at Stephanie's son's first birthday was abominable. While Stephy would have considered herself to be a party girl in her early twenties, she could say without a shadow of a doubt that she would never have gotten smashed at a family birthday party for a one year old. That was definitely a new low. It made Stephanie cringe to think that this was a woman that Paul would actually bring around their child. It was like he was condoning her outrageous behavior. And now, worst of all, it looked like the brat was going to persuade him to leave just when Aurora was fully warming up to her father.

"I'm visiting with my daughter. It's your fault for drinking so damn much. Why don't you just use that finger pad that you call a cell phone, I know you have it on you since you were tapping on it the entire ride over here from the airport, and call yourself a cab." Paul finally told his date without even a glance over in her direction.

"But Paul, I don't have enough money for a cab back into the city! Cash doesn't fit well in the purse that goes with my dress! I only have my am-ex!" She whined back placing her hand on her forehead to brace herself up on the table.

"I'll give you the cash. Just make a call to a cab service. I'm sure you'll find one that will drive out here and take you to a hotel." Levesque retorted showing his frustration in his voice.

He was glad to pay her expensive cab fare if it meant getting Barbie Blank the hell away from him, Stephanie, and Aurora. She was bound to only cause problems and embarrass him. With her gone, hopefully, Paul could score some points with Stephanie to make up for his earlier screw up that had earned him a slap to the face.

Angle had set Kody down on his feet when the child had signaled that he wanted to be put down. Immediately Kody moved closer to Aurora, who had ran over and grabbed hold of her mother's leg as soon as her daddy had put her down.

"See who he chooses to bring around Aurora?" Kurt whispered into his wife's ear as he watched Paul allowing Kelly Kelly to lean on him for balance while going down the back deck stairs.

Her husband's comment caused Stephanie to look over at her ex-husband helping the young diva walk down the few wooden steps. She raised a single eyebrow while gazing on. Steph found herself entertaining thoughts of the young woman losing her balance and tumbling down the remaining steps to the sandy beach below. That was such an evil thought yet it was so satisfying to think.

She had made the phone call and after a good fifteen minutes had gone by, Paul thought it was time to have her out by the road to catch her cab. Levesque knew better than to cut through the beach house. With his luck, he would surely be subjected to McMahon who would gladly take time away from work to berate him. Barbie took each deck step one at a time, using the same leg to step down each one, while she held tightly onto Paul to keep her balance.

If he thought drudging through the sand around the perimeter of the beach house with Kelly Kelly was miserable when they first arrived, it was a thousand times worse for her departure. He basically had to drag her along; being in high heels was just too much for her to handle while in an inebriated state. Getting her in the cab and waving goodbye as it drove far away would be well worth the torture.