Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, other than Lily and Madison.
Rated: M
Warning(s): Slash, Storyline Fanfic, Past Mpreg, etc.
It had been two days since he and Mark had 'ended' things, and while things definitely hadn't been easy, Hunter was quickly realizing that the fastest way to acclimate the girls to their new lives was to make a routine. Also, if he were to be totally honest with himself, having Randy around definitely helped. The girls would leave with Randy a half-hour before the show, go out to dinner, and then show up about an hour in and hang around back until Hunter was finished with his nightly business. Without Randy, he didn't think that it would be possible to successfully launch the biggest WrestleMania in history - WrestleMania XXX.
"Thank you again for taking the girls a little earlier today. It's been awhile since I've had time to hit the gym." Hunter confessed a little sheepishly, handing a pink, butterfly-print diaper bag over to Randy.
"Not a problem." Randy didn't even seem to struggle under the weight of the two girls. "You have a big match coming up in less than a month. You're looking great, but there's no reason to risk anything."
He smiled. Somehow, Randy always seemed to understand. "Shawn is coming down with me to make sure I don't overdo anything, but I doubt that will happen. Just a brisk, thirty minute work-out to get the blood flowing."
"Have fun with that." Randy knew that a brisk work-out simply meant higher intensity, crammed into a shorter time frame. "You have everything you're gonna need, Lily?"
Lily made a show of counting off everything on her fingers, before giving him a big smile. "Yep! I gots it all!"
"Okay." He ruffled her blonde curls sweetly. "Say bye-bye to Mommy, now."
Lily turned to him stiffly. Things between them still weren't fantastic, but they were slowly getting there, one day at a time. "Goodbye, Mommy."
"Bye, sweetie. Love you." He kissed her forehead, trying not to get upset when she didn't say it back. "Love you too, Madison." The baby gave off a small giggle as he kissed her soft head.
"We'll see you in a couple of hours." Randy confirmed, and then, they took their leave.
Hunter waved to the two girls as they left the hotel room, before shutting the door behind them. Things would get better, he assured himself. They had to. Heading back toward the bedroom area, he grabbed his old tennis shoes, his sweatshirt, and a towel. His suit and other toiletries were already packed away in his gym bag. Thanks to this new, high-intensity workout that he'd been following for the last few days, he'd already lost five pounds. It might not have seemed like a lot in the grand scheme of things - he was still climbing a mountain, with the summit the better part of thirty pounds - but it was a crack in the foundation.
It was only when he'd draped the towel over his shoulder, slung the gym bag on top of it, and was toeing on his sneakers that he started to think about Mark. He'd taken great pride in not thinking about the Deadman over the last few hours… but in the end, just like clockwork, the thoughts always returned. How had it been so easy for Mark to just abandon his family so callously? Didn't he ever care about Hunter, or his girls? He claimed that the reason for the break-up was his sudden temperament issues - how he couldn't control himself around Phil, how he was constantly worried and insecure, how every little thing seemed to set him off…
But what if it was more? What if there was another ticking time bomb just below the surface of the shallow water, waiting for the opportune moment to blow? Hunter shook his head, burying the thoughts deep. There was no use worrying incessantly over something that he would never know the answer to, anyhow. With that in mind, he made his way to the door, making sure that his key card was tucked safely into the pocket of his basketball shorts. He made his way down the hall, looking for room 230B. Once he located it, he knocked once. There was some shuffling on the inside, and then, the door swung open.
"Took ya long enough." Shawn said gruffly, dressed in casual jeans and a checked white and red sleeveless shirt. "I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show."
Hunter shrugged, trying not to show that he was a tad insulted by what Shawn was insinuating. "It's not like I have much of a choice anymore. I need to be at a healthy weight to compete in the ring."
Shawn nodded, but continued, "But are you really sure that it's healthy to be losing the baby weight so fast?"
"It's not like I have a baby inside me that needs it anymore." Hunter countered easily.
"Yeah, but the doctor told you that it could take anywhere from six to eight weeks for your body to return to normal after having Madison." Shawn said. "Don't you think that this is pushing it a little bit?"
"Look," Hunter was quickly losing his patience. "If I wanted to be lectured on whether or not I was making a healthy decision, I would have consulted the doctor. But since I didn't, I don't want to hear it."
"And then there's the fact that your hormones are still all out of whack…" he trailed off, sighing.
"I'm beginning to wonder whether you didn't think I would show, or you didn't want me to show."
Shawn sighed again. He looked tired, and that made him seem older. It made Hunter uncomfortable. "Let's just get downstairs, huh? I'm not in the mood to argue with you."
Was that an argument? Hunter hadn't thought that it was, but apparently, that was how it had translated to Shawn. Maybe there was more merit in what Mark had said about his short fuse than he had originally thought. But he brushed that thought aside. Now was not the time to be thinking about Mark and what had happened in the past. The past was unchangeable. But the future… even if he was going to lose to Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania, he was going to put on a hell of a show doing it. That meant that he needed to be in pique physical form. In other words, no distractions. Not even a would-be fight with his best friend.
"Did you hear me Hunter?" Shawn, who had apparently still been talking the entire time, now offered Hunter an agitated glance. "I said let's go."
"Coming, coming." And he hurried after him, just barely catching the elevator that would take them to the gym.
Phil and Daniel were now carefully navigating the aisles at Home Depot, double-checking their list to make sure that they had gotten everything that they needed for Daniel to start working on the nursery that afternoon. They'd gotten the paint - three different shades of blue: sky blue, cerulean blue, and aquamarine. They'd gotten a box of nails, a hammer, a curtain rod (along with all of the fixtures to hang it), white lace curtains, white faux-wood blinds, some spare pieces of wood for shelves, and a candy bar for Phil. It looked like they were finally ready to build their son's dream nursery.
"It's going to be perfect." Phil was positively beaming as they entered the check-out lane. "Thank you again for doing this. I know I haven't always been the… greatest encouragement in the world."
Daniel smirked. The line moved forward, and he pushed the cart up a little bit. "You kidding, Philly? You're my muse. I'm gonna have you sitting in the hallway, where the fumes can't get you, so I can stare at you the whole time I'm working."
That caused Phil to laugh. It was a gorgeous, full-bodied sound. "Some might consider that to be a little creepy."
"I've never really been one to care about what other people think. You know that." Daniel shot back.
"I know." Phil nodded firmly. "It's one of the many reasons I love you."
Even if he'd said it perhaps a thousand times since they'd had that little tiff a few days ago, it still made his stomach clench and his heart soar. Phil was, by nature, a rather reserved, closed-off person. He didn't like expressing his feelings verbally, preferring to let his actions speak for him. The line moved forward again, and they were next. Phil started carefully unloading the cart, a small smile on his face the entire time. For the occasional item that Daniel worried would be too heavy or too cumbersome for the heavily pregnant man to lift, he did it himself. Once everything was up, they moved forward and proceeded to check-out.
Twenty minutes later, and they were back out in the car. Daniel insisted that he load everything up, so Phil sat and waited until his fiance returned. Soon, though, they were back on the road. The fifteen minute drive from Home Depot to their home was peaceful and serene, like it had been cut out from a bucolic movie scene. Many would have found it odd that they lived in a log cabin (a very large log cabin, as Phil had pointed out to one surprised fan), but Daniel liked having that close proximity to nature and Phil liked how isolated they were from the rest of society. It was a little old-world, old-school, but they both preferred it that way.
"I'll start to make lunch while you bring all of the stuff in." Although he would probably never admit to it out loud, he had missed the quaint, quiet haven that was their home.
Daniel snickered, "You sure? I don't want you to burn the house down or anything like that."
"It was only one time, and it was an accident!" Phil crossed his arms over his swollen belly indignantly. "Who would have thought that the skillet would catch fire like that?"
"Anyone that realizes that you're supposed to spray the non-stick fluid on before they light the stove."
"Hah, hah, very funny. Seriously, you're killing me, here." The sarcasm in his tone was so thick, it could have been cut with a knife. "Do you want to eat or not?"
"Yeah. I could go for some food." All kidding aside, he was pretty hungry, and Phil was a halfway decent cook when he put his mind to it. "What're you thinking of making?"
"Vegetable soup in a broth made from tomatoes." Phil answered nonchalantly.
Daniel smiled. "Okay. Call me down when it's ready."
It wasn't ready for quite awhile. Daniel took that time to carry all of the materials to the second floor of the two-bedroom cabin. The second bedroom had traditionally been used as a guest bedroom, seeing as neither Phil or Daniel had come into the relationship ready to settle down and have children. Both were preparing themselves for a bright future with the WWE before they'd gotten news about the little one. And though everything seemed to go downhill after that - Phil had left, possibly to never return, and Daniel had been downgraded to a B+ player - both couldn't be happier than they were right at that moment.
He was just starting to sort the materials when Phil called him down, "Lunch!"
He rushed downstairs, grabbing the bowl from Phil's waiting hands. Taking a seat at the table, he inhaled deeply, savoring the rich, delectable scent. "Smells great, babe."
"Good." Phil brought his own bowl over to the table, sitting across from Daniel. "Eat up, 'cause there's plenty more."
After finishing with his work-out, he'd showered and dressed, before heading over to that night's arena. Brock Lesnar was due in the house that night, and he made sure that he steered clear of the Beast's path. His cheek was still smarting from their last encounter, and he wasn't looking forward to a repeat occurrence. After a brief meeting with Stephanie, he'd gone up to his office for the night. His secretary, a pretty woman in her mid-twenties, gave him a small, swamped smile. Sticky-notes were littered all over her desk, and it soon became apparent that she'd been fielding phone calls for him for the last half-hour.
She did her best to catch his attention, but he more or less waved her off. He had bigger fish to fry at the moment. He was feeling pumped - not quite good, but not cruddy, as he'd been feeling lately. After the progress that he'd made today, he felt like he was in a good place to tell the little weasel, Daniel Bryan, that his challenge for a match at WrestleMania had been accepted. Writing down a quick note on a piece of lined scratch paper, he walked it back into his secretary's little office and placed it on her desk amidst the other miscellaneous litter. She looked at him warily, having seen the URGENT stamped on the top.
Before she could ask what was so 'urgent' about it, however, he vanished into his office and closed the door behind him. With a sigh, she picked up the phone and dialed the number, recieving, "Hello, you've reached Daniel Bryan. I'm not near the phone right now, so leave your name and number and I'll get back to you soon."
"Hello, Mr. Bryan. This is Lena Kelly, Mr. Helmsley's personal secretary. I've been called to inform you that your WrestleMania challenge has been accepted. To finalize all formalities, you've been formally requested to appear on this week's upcoming RAW. Thank you."