Disclaimer: All the events and character description taken place in this story is COMPLETELY FICTION. No copyright infringement intended. All characters are copy written to their respective owners. No profit is being made from this story. It should be viewed only as entertainment.
Chapter Forty-One
The first thing that Paul realized when his eyes opened was that there was daylight in the room. Then, as his sleepiness began to wear off, he noticed that the ceiling he was looking up at was vaulted much unlike the flat ceiling in his own bedroom. When he was just coming to the realization that he wasn't in his room, much less his home, he heard a soft moan and then felt an arm drape over his muscular torso. He inhaled sharply, completely taken off guard that he wasn't alone in the bed. Before he could even lift his head off the pillow and turn to get a look at who he was sharing a bed with, his olfactory system picked up a scent. The smell was not only familiar but one that he had been longing for, for more than a year. It was Stephanie and she was asleep right next to him.
Levesque's body tensed. He could feel his heart begin to race the minute he felt Steph's head gently rest on his hard left pectoral muscle. Paul couldn't believe that he had gotten into bed with her last night. He really must have been out of it to confuse the Angle home with his own. Perhaps he had been confused because it was the second night in a row that he had fallen asleep with his daughter and had to get up and go to his own bed in the middle of the night.
Without even thinking of the consequences of waking his former wife, Paul instinctively tilted his neck forward and nestled his large nose into her brown hair. He breathed in deep. The remnants of her favorite perfume filled his nostrils, causing memories of their past intimacies to flood his mind. The fact that the two of them were again in a bed together only made those terrific memories all the more vivid. A smile registered on his face. He slowly changed his viewpoint of his former wife, so that he could silently move in and steal a small kiss during her slumber. But before he could get close enough to bring his lips to hers, she suddenly rolled over to her side of the bed and let out a long sigh. She had always been prone to changing her position during sleep and things hadn't changed.
With the his view of her changing to just her back, reality began to sink in and he realized how much explaining he would have to do if she woke up and found him in her and Angle's bed. It would most definitely not be a conversation to go in his favor. Who knows, she might even accuse him of trying to take advantage of her while she was sleeping. He didn't want that. Levesque longed to be intimate with her when she was awake and willing to. This was his chance to get out of there before she would even know he was there.
Trying his best not to further disturb her rest, Paul slowly eased himself toward the edge of the king size bed. Once there, his right leg and arm emerged first from the bed sheets before the other pair followed suit. He managed to remove himself from the bed without even causing her to stir slightly. His clothing was lying in a heap on the floor right. He must have undressed on autopilot while he was half asleep. Levesque quickly gathered up all his garments, making sure not to leave anything as evidence that he had in fact spent the night in the master bedroom.
And then, he silently crept out of the room through the already open double doors. Traveling down the hall, he quickened his pace, not even stopping to check in the baby's nursery or even in his own daughter's room. Paul's destination was the closest guest room in relation to his little girl's room. It was the room he would have chosen if he had indeed spent the night in one of the Angle guest rooms like he was suppose to.
He let out a sigh of relief, knowing that he had gotten to where he was suppose to be without arousing any suspicion. A decorative clock on the dresser of the guest room, where he had set his clothing, told him that it was only 6:30. He must have awoken right at sunrise. He was lucky. Paul knew that if he had slept later the kids would already be awake and would have both immediately sought to have their mother tend to them.
Levesque let no time go to waste. He pulled back the bed sheets and let them lay in a crumpled mess in the center of the bed after throwing the decorative pillows off to the side. The two head pillows, he gave each a hard punch to flatten them, so that it looked like he had spent the full night sleeping in the bed. When he was satisfied with his staged guest room, he helped himself to a nice hot shower in the bathroom he had used last week when he spent the night.
While the warm water rinsing clean his glistening muscular body felt nice, it was nothing compared to how great it was not only hearing from his baby girl that her mommy was still in love with him, but also the fact that he had spent most of the night sleeping in bed with her. He didn't want this time with the two of them to end. Angle's eminent return was looming over him like a baby grand piano hanging over head. Kurt could return at anytime now, like the preverbal piano that could come careening down right on his head when he least expected it. Paul did his best to push those thoughts out of his mind. He wanted to enjoy the last few hours he had with Steph and their daughter before Angle's arrival home and his departure for the SmackDown tapings.
For the first time in days, Stephanie awoke with a smile on her face. She had just had the best night of sleep that she had had in days. Not once did she wake up in the middle of the night and have to go running to the toilet. Her sleep had been peaceful and uninterrupted. She even remembered her dream; it had to be a dream because she felt like she had been snuggling up with her husband in bed, and she knew very well that Kurt was away overnight because of RAW. So the comforting feeling of cuddling up to the man she loved had to be just a lovely dream.
Steph was cautious when she first got out of bed. She was just waiting for the nausea to set in but to her surprise, it was at bay. After donning her robe and tying it in the front, she casually went about her usual morning routine, her first stop being the nearby nursery.
"Good morning my sweet baby boy!" Stephanie gushed the moment she laid eyes on her youngest child.
Little Andrew had been lying on his back in his crib with his feet running back and forth over the wooden rails of his crib. The moment he had heard his mother's voice and then saw her looking down at him, he quickly got to his feet and returned a happy gaze at her.
"Good morning, Mommy, you feel better?"Aurora exclaimed in a very cheerful tone of voice. She had entered the nursery the moment she heard her mother's voice from her bedroom. The three year old was definitely happy to see her mommy up and taking care of her and her brother after being so sick the majority of yesterday.
"Hi sweetie, yes I'm feeling much better. Is your daddy up?" Steph answered back with a smile after she laid Andy down on his changing table.
"I dunno, I watch cartoons now?" The little girl requested coming back with a question of her own. Her favorite morning activity was watching her morning preschool shows.
"I'll be down in a few minutes after I finish changing the baby and then I'll check on your daddy. Then I'll come down and put your show on for you."
Satisfied with her mother's reply, Aurora left the nursery allowing Steph to focus on finishing the diaper change. And then, with Andrew on her hip, she left the nursery en route to the part of the house where the guest rooms were located. She stopped halfway down the hall when she saw her former husband emerge from one of her guest bathrooms with just a towel wrapped around his waist.
"Hey, good morning, feeling better?" Levesque asked with a warm smile the minute he caught sight of his ex-wife approaching him in the hall.
Steph felt her lips form an instinctual smile. It happened automatically when she laid eyes on her former husband, the guy that had been so nice and helpful to her yesterday. She didn't know what she would have done without him there.
"Yes, I'm feeling a lot better. I hope I'm finally reaching the end of whatever illness I had. If you want to get dressed and come down stairs you can help me look after the kids while I cook us some breakfast." She proposed.
"Sounds good, I'll meet you downstairs." Paul quickly replied back before he traveled down the hallway and disappeared into his self-appointed guest room.
Stephanie didn't have to watch the children for very long before Levesque came downstairs to take over. It was when she saw him in the same clothes that he had been wearing yesterday that Steph remembered that she still had the shirt of his that he had been wearing during his last visit at the house when Aurora had thrown up on him. She had washed it and left it folded in the laundry room. So before she started making breakfast, she ventured to the laundry room to retrieve the shirt to give to him.
"Oh wow, thanks." Levesque said aloud the moment he was being handed his polo. He quickly accepted it and began the process of changing shirts.
The light blue polo was handed to him neatly folded and looked like it had just been bought at the store. Looking at it, you would never have known that it had been covered in vomit only last week. Having Steph hand him the fresh clean shirt reminded him of when she had bought it for him. During their marriage, every additional piece of clothing he had that wasn't a t-shirt was bought for him by Stephanie. She had cared about him enough to pick him out new dress shirts and pants and fold or hang them right in his closet for him. He missed being cared for and looked after by her. Angle was surely getting the same treatment now. The difference was, of course, that the Olympic Twerp probably didn't appreciate it.
"Daddy, come back and watch me pway." Aurora requested the moment she noticed when she looked away from her morning cartoons and saw that her daddy was no longer sitting next to her at her doll house. He was now on the other side of the living room intervening in baby Andy's attempt to pull all of the picture frames off the side glass table next to the sofa.
"I'll be there in just a minute sweetie, Daddy just has to cage this little gremlin." Paul told his daughter as he picked up the exploring one year old and placed him in the playpen.
He wasn't going to keep chasing after the kid each time he toddled or crawled over to something that he could break or hurt himself with. While being put into the playpen was going to piss the little guy off, it was going to give him undivided time with his little girl. Besides, Stephanie would be done making breakfast in no time and then she could go back to tending to her son.
"What the fuck?" Angle muttered under his breath the moment he drove his white Cadillac Escalade up the driveway to his home.
His eyes were wide as anger surged through his body like a sudden shot of adrenaline. The only reason he muttered his obscenity was because of the fact that two of his children were sitting in the backseat of his SUV.
"What's wrong, Dad?" Kyra asked straining her neck to try and peer out and see what her father was looking at that had him saying bad words under his breath.
Kurt didn't answer his daughter. He was in a trance like stare with his blue eyes focused intently on the red Hummer parked in his driveway, blocking him from even getting his Escalade into his garage. He knew the SUV was Paul's. There was no doubt about it. What the hell was that asshole doing at his house before even nine o'clock in the morning? Did he sleep over again? How could Stephanie allow that?
Angle felt his body shake with anger while he let out a forced exhale that made his chest feel like it was on fire because of his dislocated rib that had been popped back into place. He was tightening his grip on the steering wheel as he slowly let the Escalade continue to creep forward. After everything he had been through since last night: the instigating phone conversation between him and Levesque, Kody's fall that landed him a mild concussion, and then having a rib dislocated thanks to an unforgiving Swanton Bomb from Jeff Hardy; Kurt thought that the aggravation and pain would be all behind him when he got home to his wife and baby son. Now the sight of Paul's Hummer in his driveway was proving different.
"Daddy?" Kyra questioned aloud again.
The SUV came to an abrupt stop and Angle threw the gear shift lever up into the park position before grabbing hold of his key and shutting the engine off. Like a man on a mission, Kurt exited his vehicle, and then quickly opened up the driver side back door and hastily unbuckled both of his children from their safety seats and helped them out of the Cadillac.
Kyra Marie was starting to really get nervous. Her daddy had never ignored her questions before and he looked really upset about something. All the little girl could do was grab her clueless little brother's hand and run after their father as he seemed to be wanting to enter his house from the front door.
With a turn of the house key, Angle was given access to his home. From the moment that he entered the front door with the kids, his eyes were searching for the slightest hint of his wife's ex-husband like a predator stalking and searching for a glimpse of its prey. Once Angle began to walk down the hallway that lead him further into the home, he began to hear an array of voices, two of which were his wife and her three year old daughter's. It was when Kurt reached the kitchen that he was stopped dead in his tracks. He felt like all his breath had been sucked out of him and all he could do was stare at the scene he had stumbled upon.
He felt like an outsider looking in on a family breakfast. Aurora was in her booster seat, feeding herself like a big girl, while Steph was sitting across from her, slowly eating herself. What really caught Kurt's attention was the fact that his baby son was being spoon fed by Levesque while in his high chair that was between him and Steph. What the hell was he doing at his breakfast table? It damn sure wasn't his place to act as Steph's husband and father to Andrew. Was this Paul's devious way to try and make him think that he could replace him? What was even more shocking was that Steph was okay with it. This was like a slap in the face.
"What the hell is this?" Angle finally inquired aloud, cutting through the breakfast table chatter like a knife through butter.
Stephanie's mouth fell open when she saw the look on her husband's face. He looked angry, confused, and hurt all at the same time. It was at that moment that she really regretted not taking the time to phone him first thing in the morning before he got home so that he could have a heads up about sleeping over.
"Kurt, I can explain, I should have called you, Paul-"
"Get out of my house! Now!" Angle screamed completely shouting right over his wife when she tried to explain the situation before emotions got high. It was too late for that. Raising his voice caused Kurt to cringe slightly, his sore ribs giving off an almost crippling pain.
"This isn't just your house, it's Stephanie's too. I was invited to stay over by her, numb nuts." Levesque answered back in a calm voice putting down the toddler spoon as he slowly rose from his seat.
"Paul, please, I don't want this to be made more than what it is." Stephanie said aloud holding her hand out toward her former husband like she was a traffic guard halting oncoming traffic to avoid a collision.
Paul's words caused Angle to shift his eyes to back onto his wife as if he was searching her face for a hint that would tell him if what her ex was saying was indeed true. He really didn't want it to be.
"Yeah, and what is this? He stayed in our house again last night, while I was away? How the fuck does that look, Stephanie?"
Steph's eyes were beginning to well up with tears. She had never meant for it to come to this. If only she could explain to Kurt how much of a help Paul had been to her while she was sick. She wished she could make him understand that Levesque had done them a favor.
"Why don't you keep your damn voice down? You're scaring the kids in the room. Who cares how it looks, Angle? The fact is that I was there for Steph when you weren't." Paul retorted back, keeping the volume of his voice in check.
"Mommy!" Aurora called out in fear, holding her arms out in the direction of Stephanie, signaling her urgency to be near her.
"It's okay, sweetie, don't cry. Don't be afraid." Steph whispered through her own tears at little Aurora who looked to be terrified by the heated standoff between her father and step-father.
"I took better care of Steph, my daughter, and your kid than you have the course of the single year you were married. And that is true, Kurt Angle, it's damn true." Levesque then added giving the slight hint of a smirk while he spoke the words that he knew would really get under his adversary's skin.
Paul was playing the situation completely calm, cool, and collected. It was the first time that he had had the upper hand going up against Angle with Steph present to see it. He wasn't going to ruin it by acting the role of fool that Kurt was already playing to a tee.
What Paul didn't count on was that Angle didn't come back with his own rebuttal. The Olympic gold medalist actually sprang into action and rushing toward him like a linebacker moving in for a tackle in what seemed like a blink of an eye.
"Oh my God, Kurt!" Stephanie screamed as her husband's muscular body slammed into the side of the baby's high chair tray with such force that it would have tipped it over if Steph hadn't had the quick reflexes of her own to grab it.
When finally Angle made contact with his intended target, it was in the form of a takedown. Under normal circumstances, Paul would have used his power as a body builder to hold his own, but it all happened so fast that he didn't have any time to react. And then, when Paul was on the kitchen floor, he was met with a barrage of right and left fists that were so hard and so relentless that he had no choice but to cover up.
The pain in his chest that was caused by his immediate action, Kurt considered a small price to pay for finally giving Paul the ass kicking he had been needing for a long time. All Angle could think about was the thought of Levesque having his wife behind his back while at the same time playing daddy to his one year old son. The torturous thoughts fueled his aggressive assault like excelsior being thrown on an already uncontainable fire.
"Kurt, stop it! Get off of him! Please, Kurt! You're going to hurt him! Get off!" Steph continued to holler as she began to try her best to pull her husband out of his position over her former husband. She even tried pounding her fists against his back, hoping that it would snap Angle out of his rage.
"Get the fuck off of me!" Screamed Paul in a muffled voice while he continued to try his best and shield his face from Angle's onslaught.
By now all four of the children were crying. Kyra and Kody were standing right where the hallway met the kitchen while Aurora and Andrew were still in their seats. Steph was getting angry now by her husband's complete disregard for her begging him to stop. With all of her might, she was finally able to pull Kurt off Paul.
"Their my fucking wife and son! You think you can just come in my house and take what's mine?" Angle yelled as Steph did her best to push him back away from Paul who was still lying on the kitchen floor.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Stephanie's right hand, which had the swiftness of the tackle, smacked hard against Kurt's left cheek. The sound of the slap echoed through the spacious house and it caused everything to come to a halt. Angle looked dumbstruck. He brought his left hand to his face, feeling the warm flesh that had just been hit by his own wife. Kurt's eyes shot a piercing stare directly at her.
Tears were streaming down Stephanie's face that were there not just because of the fight, but also because she had slapped the man she loved. This was the first time in their marriage that things had ever gotten physical between her and Kurt. And now, she felt like she had just crossed a line that she really wished she hadn't.