Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, other than Dexter, Lily and Madison.
Rated: M
Warning(s): Slash, Past Mpreg, Storyline Fanfic, etc.

By the time Phil arrived at Kofi's house, two days had passed - he certainly hadn't accounted for pregnancy bladder in his original calculations for how long the trip was bound to take. He was tired, no, he was damn near exhausted, and it would be a great relief to finally be face-to-face with an actual bed instead of the backseat of the car. His pregnant belly was beginning to protrude too far for him to make himself comfortable using the backseat as a bed anyhow, seeing as before he'd almost had to bend himself in half just to fit in the first place. And after two consecutive nights of twisting his body unnaturally, the bed was calling his name.

He felt a little sick to his stomach, seeing as he hadn't had a proper meal in two days, but that could be addressed tomorrow. The front porch lights were coming on and a bleary-eyed Kofi was making his way toward the car, excited to greet his friend regardless of how tired he might have been. Phil stepped out of the car, popping the trunk so that he could get his things - but Kofi raised a hand, silently communicating that he would be the one to gather Phil's belongings. If this was supposed to be a vacation, he didn't need to do anything to overexert himself. Driving for such a long stretch of time was probably already too strenuous for him.

"How are you feeling?" Kofi asked. Somehow, coming from him, it was less condescending, less like he couldn't take care of himself, and more genuine concern.

"Really tired. Just... tired." Mentally. Physically. Emotionally. He was starting to regret leaving without so much as a word to Daniel, starting to worry about Daniel tearing the house apart looking for him, but he chalked it up to pregnancy hormones and let it slide.

"Well, you can relax. You're home now." Holding the door open for his friend, both stepped into the foyer of Kofi's house. It was so silent, you could hear a pin drop. "Luckily, the guest room is on the first floor, so you don't have to go too far before you crash."

The idea of crashing on a real, warm bed had never been more enticing. "Thank you so much for doing this for me, Kofi. You don't know how much it means."

A pause, "I think that I do." And then, to lighten the mood a little bit, "But hey, next time me and the wife have a fight, you can hide me away in that backwater cabin you and goat-face share. She'll never think to hunt me down and murder me there."

They both shared a laugh at that, and it was light and refreshing. Phil realized how long it had been since he'd really been able to laugh about anything. It had certainly been before this mess with the Authority had started, and it was long before he'd gotten on Hunter's bad side. Kofi led him down a darkened hallway, before stopping at the last door on the left and opening it. Slipping inside, he turned on the light and placed everything beside the dresser right inside the door. The room wasn't very big, maybe the size of a basic hotel room, but it was better than nothing. Like Kofi had said, here, he was home.

Phil went into the room and took a seat at the foot of the bed, slowly beginning to unlace his sneakers and take them off. "Sleep as long as you need, man, okay? Breakfast will be ready and waiting for you whenever you get up. But you need to make sure that you get your rest for the baby."

Phil paused momentarily, before offering up, "I need to tell you something, Kofi."

"What?" Kofi asked. If Phil needed to talk, he'd be there for him. Especially in such a trying and complicated time.

"I don't think that I'm going to return to the WWE after the baby is born." Phil said softly. "I've been thinking about it a lot lately, actually. I'm not really sure what I want to do... maybe get into the comic business, or even MMA. I don't know. I just know that I can't be here anymore."

Kofi was silent for a moment, and then asked, "Have you talked to Daniel about this?"

"What do you think?" Phil snapped back, a little bit harder than was actually necessary. And then, "Sorry. I shouldn't have snapped."

"Honestly? I think that that might be exactly what you need. I've seen the conflict mounting between you and Hunter, and I know that it's causing problems in your relationship with Daniel. If you think that it's what is best for you, then that is exactly what you need to do."

Phil tossed his shoes next to the bed, starting in on his socks next. "Thanks. I'm not sure yet - I guess I'm really waiting to see about the fall-out from WrestleMania, you know? I can't help but feel like something really nasty is on the horizon."

Phil was too tired to even change into his pajamas, and he didn't even care. Sliding back onto the bed, he made himself comfortable and closed his eyes. He was well-aware that Kofi was still there, and both of them knew that this was not a dismissive gesture. Phil simply needed time to digest everything that they had just discussed. He'd been with the WWE for ten years - ten years was a lot to abandon, and he wanted to be absolutely sure that he knew what he was doing before he walked off the pier and realized that he didn't know how to swim. But at the same time, if he had a bad relationship from his boss, the only way to go was down.

Phil opened his eyes and met Kofi's, and they shared a nod. Kofi took that as his cue to exit, leaving Phil alone to his thoughts. The tattooed superstar rubbed soothing circles over his protruding belly, trying to occupy his mind with potential baby names for their soon-to-be-born son. Would he and Daniel even still be together when the baby was born? He kind of liked the idea of naming the baby Daniel Jackson Brooks-Bryan, but if he and Daniel broke up before the child was born, would he still want to name him after the baby's estranged father? He closed his eyes again. That was a thought for another day.

"Mommy hurt." Lily announced suddenly, slowly sipping at her cup of juicey-juice.

That caught Randy's attention. It was a difficult night, overall. John had a match to contend, so Randy was busy with Dexter, in addition to watching Hunter's two daughters as well. Dexter was sick (and this, unfortunately, was not an uncommon occurrence - the little boy was becoming increasingly more sickly as time progressed), Lily was practically catatonic, and Madison was pitching a fit. If Randy was right, she seemed to be spiking a little bit of a fever, which would only add to the stress of the night. As this was the first thing that Lily had said all night, Randy almost jumped out of his skin upon hearing it.

"What do you mean, sweetie?" Randy was changing into his third shirt of the night - Dexter missed the towel every time with his vomiting fits.

"Mommy need the medicine bag. His stomach hurt real bad, and he fell down. Mommy hurt." Lily responded simply, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Mommy said not to worry, but Lily saw blood."

"Blood?" Randy was seriously concerned now. Handing his twenty-two month old son his sippy-cup full of ice water, he turned to the little girl. "Lily, sweetie, this is very important. Can you tell me where you saw the blood?"

She narrowed her eyes, as if thinking really hard. Then, she responded, "On his pants."

Randy's heart clenched in his chest. He could just imagine how confused and scared the little girl must've been, seeing the blood and not knowing why it was there or understanding where it came from. He silently cursed Hunter for not taking better care of himself, and everyone else (including himself) for not forcing him to take it easy. There was a reason why there was a recommended period of time for rest and recuperation after having a baby, especially one that was overdue and had as many complications as Madison. He could have caused himself to have a life-threatening bleed, and worse could be coming.

After making sure that all of the children were attended to, he went into the other room and pulled out his phone. There was still enough time to contact Hunter before he got to the arena and was inundated with work - there was still time to reach him before he became practically unapproachable. Pulling out his phone, he dialed Hunter's number and waited. If he reached him before he left the gym, he could at least attempt to convince him to turn around and go to the hospital. Before Hunter could answer, however, he changed his mind. He dialed again, but this time he called Shawn Michaels.

Shawn answered on the first ring. "Hey. What can I do for you?"

"Shawn, it's Randy. Listen, I need to tell you something. Lily just informed me that Hunter is massively hurt. Like stomach cramping and blood bad." Randy said. "The blood was on his pants, and I'm seriously worried that he's pushing himself right into a major bleed."

"I'm at the gym with him right now. He's been in the showers for like thirty minutes." There was a pause, "He really did seem a little out of it earlier, though. He was breathing really heavy and sounded like he was about to be sick... I'm going to go check on him."

He didn't hang up, and Randy took that as an invitation to stay on the line. There was the sound of footsteps on the other end of the line... the opening of a door... the sound of water as it cascaded down onto the tile floor... And then there was a long, startled inhale and the sound of a phone falling to the ground, before everything became silent. Randy pulled the phone away from his ear and realized that the connection had been lost. Brilliant. Such a reaction from Shawn could only mean so many things, and none of them were good. Randy went back into the other room and found Dexter with a thin trail of blood dribbling down his chin.

"Fuck!" He scooped the little boy up, bundling him in a blanket. "Okay, okay, stay calm. Lily - get your things." Lily, recognizing the stern note in his voice as leaving no room for dissension, quickly did as he said. "Looks like we're going to the hospital anyhow."