John felt sick to his stomach as he turned on to the neighborhood he had grown up in as a kid. He really didn't want to do this. This wasn't going to end well at all. "We should turn around," he said nervously.

"Turn around?" Shawn said in disbelief. "Why? You can't let shit stay this way John. It's time to nut the hell up and face your family."

John's lips twitched violently. "Nut the hell up? You've been talking to Randy too much."

"Nonsense. I find that Mr. Orton can be quite wise when the situation calls for it." Shawn grabbed John's hand that was not on the wheel and gave it a good squeeze. "Your family means a lot to you and if you want to not be the black sheep anymore, you have to fight back. At the very least they'll know you don't appreciate being made the outcast just because you like to play butt pirates instead um…vagina wenches."

John couldn't help but laugh. "Vagina wenches? Man you are full of all kinds of fun sayings today." He pulled into his parent's driveway and leaned over so he could kiss Shawn's cheek. "All I can say is thank God you're with me. I could not do this on my own."

Shawn smiled. "I wouldn't have ever expected you to. I've been through this myself and I never even tried telling my family alone. I had to have a support system." He looked out through the windshield and saw that John's mom was getting up from working on her garden that was in the front yard. "You ready baby?"

"Eh…as I'll ever be." John gave Shawn's hand a squeeze before getting out of the car.

"John! What are you doing here?" Jennifer Cena asked as she took her gardening gloves off and tossed them on to the porch so she could dust her jeans off.

"We were in the neighborhood and we decided to drop by for a visit," John said as casually as he could. He saw the way his mother looked at Shawn and it made him feel uncomfortable. "I hope that's okay."

"Oh of course it is," she assured him. "Why don't you boys come in and we'll have some tea?"

"That would be lovely," Shawn said before John could. He took Jennifer by the arm and gave her his most charming smile. This wasn't their first meeting but he was kind of acting like he was. "And if you wouldn't mind, would you give me some gardening tips? Everything I put in the ground tends to rot and I don't know what to do about it."

Jennifer looked thrown by that request at first but then she seized the opportunity to talk about the gardening shit she constantly obsessed over. John didn't listen to a word of it; he was too busy staring at Shawn's face and suppressing his laugh. Shawn looked completely and totally engrossed with what his mother was saying, even though he had never tried to grow a garden once in his entire life and probably never planned to start any time soon.

When they got inside, they found John Cena Sr. sitting at the kitchen table, reading the sports section of the newspaper. "John, look who's here," Jennifer said as she motioned for John and Shawn to sit down at the table.

John Sr. set down his paper and nodded at the couple. "What brings you boys here?"

"Oh you know…we just wanted to visit," John said, slapping Shawn's legs from under the table when he noticed that his boyfriend was poking at the flowers that were sitting on the table. "We were also planning on seeing Aunt Carol while we're here."

"We were just there yesterday," Jennifer said as she came back with a pitcher of ice tea. "She's doing much better than she was. We're hoping that she gets to come home sometime this week."

"That's great," Shawn said as he took the tea and began drinking it.

"Yeah," John agreed. He shifted around in his seat, unsure of how to approach the subject he really wanted to talk about. "I would have come home sooner to visit but uh…nobody actually told me she was so sick."

Things turned very uncomfortable as soon as he said that. Both of his parents looked away from him and Shawn gave him a look that said he shouldn't stop now. "Why didn't anyone call me sooner?"

Jennifer cleared her throat and shook her head. "Well your schedule is so hectic that-"

"My schedule? My schedule isn't an excuse to keep important stuff like this from me!" John shook his head. "Look, I'm not stupid, okay? I know that my relationship with Shawn is the reason a lot of you don't talk to me."

Jennifer immediately tried to offer up a weak defense. "Honey no-"

"Mom please, don't insult my intelligence. I know you and Dad don't approve." John swallowed heavily and almost faltered but regained his strength when he felt Shawn grab his hand and give it a good squeeze. "I know none of you really do. And I'm not here to demand acceptance or anything. It's tempting but I'm not going to do that. I just…I just want to ask that you at least respect me enough to not shut me out when it comes to stuff like this."

"Son we never-" John Sr. faltered in mid-sentence and looked at Jennifer, who looked guilty as hell. "You know? Let's all go see Aunt Carol right now. She's been asking about you a whole bunch."

Shawn looked at John with raised eyebrows but John gave him a look to keep quiet. If his parents wanted to take them to see Aunt Carol than that was okay with him. The fact that they were obviously including Shawn in on this trip was a start and that was all he could really hope for at the moment.

…

Ted hummed to himself as he headed over to the catering table. He was feeling better than he had been since the whole mess with Cody and Randy had started. While things were not totally back to normal, the incident at McDonalds had at least gotten the two to start speaking to each other again. Ted was personally hoping that something more would start to happen between them because quite frankly, those two were perfect for each other. They always had been, but Randy was too blind to see it and Cody was too scared to ever really pursue anything. It was completely frustrating and it was really making Ted want to step in and try to get the ball going once again. Sure that hadn't ended so great last time but maybe this time would be different. It had to be worth a shot anyway.

"Food food come to-hey, what the hell?" The catering table, which was usually overflowing with food, was more than a little empty. "Uh…" He looked back at the tables and saw exactly where the food had gone. "Hey! Who said you could eat all that? You don't even work here!"

James, Cooper and Connor didn't even acknowledge him while Jeff just laughed and Mark and Glenn shook their heads. "The call of food turns all Lawsons into pigs," Mark said wisely. "Believe me, they don't listen to anyone when their stomachs start growling."

"Yeah well they should share," Glenn growled. He grabbed a plate and stole some food (risking life and limb in the process) so he could hand it off to Ted. "Merry Christmas."

"Thanks." Ted gratefully took the food and sat down next to the older man because he didn't feel like sitting alone.

"You're welcome." Glenn saw that James was smirking smugly and promptly threw an empty bottle of Gatorade at him. "What's so funny Lawson?"

"Your face," James replied.

"Fuck you Lawson."

"I know you want to but-"

"Shut up," Mark cut in. "I'm not listening to this argument again."

"Daddy ran over a squirrel when he was driving," Connor informed Ted. "It squished him up real nice and made his guts explode everywhere!"

Ted stopped in mid-bite and groaned. Now he was not feeling very hungry anymore.

"I don't want to talk about that," Jeff declared. "That was sad and horrible and you're not allowed to drive again." He glared at James as he said that.

James held up his hand defensively. "I couldn't avoid it! There was traffic and it came out of nowhere!"

"Yeah sure. Whatever you say you squirrel murderer." Cooper got a smack on the back of the head for that comment.

"So Teddy," Jeff said, changing the subject so they wouldn't dwell on the dead squirrel anymore. "What have you been up to?"

"Not much," Ted said with a shrug. "I need to play matchmaker with Randy and Cody-"

"Can I tell you the ways that's not a good idea?" Glenn interjected.

"No because Adam and Matt already gave me this talk," Ted replied. "And I will not be swayed."

James swallowed a giant mouthful of food before nodding and smiling a mischievous smile that could be easily interpreted as undeniably evil. "I like the way you think. I think you should count me in."

Ted was about to object but then he remembered he was talking to a supposedly reformed serial killer. If he rejected the help, he could offend the guy and the last he checked, offending serial killers was a huge no-no. "Okay," he agreed. "If that's what you want."

"Lawson don't you dare get involved," Mark said irritably. "Ted's a big enough idiot on his own. He don't need you adding to it."

"Hey!" Ted protested. "I resent that!"

James shook his head. "I like playing matchmaker. It's fun."

"I don't care."

"Well fuck you. I'm doing what I want."

"James-"

"I have SPOKEN!" James declared defiantly. That got him a nasty look from Mark but that had no effect whatsoever. When James had spoken he had meant it, and there wasn't going to be anything anyone could do to stop him.