Hey all, I had computer trouble last week and had to rewrite this chapter all over. I have to rewrite the next one too, I hope to get it done tonight. We'll see. Happy reading. I was recently told that while I am a good writer I tend to have too many spelling errors and mispronunciations. I apologize but the truth is I'm too impatient to look that carefully. If any of you know of a beta I could use let me know. Thanks.

Nashville, Tennessee, Raw

John looked over at his friend, noticing his heightened anticipation. "Please don't tell me you're actually looking forward to preforming in front of this hick town." He asked as he pulled the car into the arena parking lot.

Randy shrugged as he turned to look out the window, his eyes searching. He didn't bother to explain how his stomach was churning in excitement, knowing instinctively that John wouldn't understand. "Tennessee's not that bad." He replied instead.

"Ha." John snorted, not paying attention to the look on his friend's face. "You did see the guy on the corner with the long white beard and the banjo right?"

The younger man laughed as he climbed out of the car. "I admit that it was an interesting sight but it's not like Boston doesn't have it's share of weirdo's."

Grinning John held up his hand. "Maybe but at least we don't look like we only bathe in the river once a month." He said in perfect imitation of a southern drawl.

Randy turned to give him a strange look, the smiling sliding off his face. "When did you become a snob?"

"It's called being realistic." He defended himself. He felt the stirring of irritation which always seemed to be laying just under the surface lately. Angry that he couldn't seem to control it he slammed the door of the car with enough force to rattle the glass in the windows.

"If you say so." Randy shrugged, unaffected by his friend's show of anger. He took the opportunity to walk toward the doors of the arena, his eyes searching the large crowd of fans pushing against the restraining fence.

John growled as he watched his friend walk away, taking a few minutes to think about going after him. He couldn't believe Randy had shunned him like that, had condemned him for his words. He was usually the fist to make fun to the locals.

"What's the matter, you and your boyfriend have a fight?" A taunting voice came from behind him.

John turn slightly to see a leering Kenny Dykstra looming behind him. "I'd be careful if I was you. I ain't afraid of kicking your ass, McMahon or no McMahon." He flexed his hands in anticipation.

Undeterred the young superstar leaned causally against the side of the car. "If you aren't scared to get beat down in front of all these fans then I'm all for it." He spread his arms open wide in invitation.

John laughed. "I'm not as dumb as you think. If we were to have, say an altercation, here in front of the fans McMahon would be forced to start a storyline to cover it up." He shook his head. "I'm betting thats just what you want." He started to walk away.

"You're just scared of losing your title." Kenny yelled after him, watching the fans to guage their reaction.

John shook his head, ignoring the younger man as he continued to walk away. He could hear the fans yelling their disappointment. "Stupid prick." He muttered under his breath as his phone rang.

"Cena." He barked, his voice abnormally loud in the empty hallway.

"Is this a bad time?" The soft tones of his girlfriend came over the airways, causing him to smile sadly.

"Hey honey." John said glad to her her voice. "I just had a run in with the spirit squad leader."

"What's the matter, he wasn't peppy enough for you?" She attempted to joke. He frowned as his ears picked up the faint strain in her voice.

"Oh you know me, I'm not the cheerleading type. I prefer the math geeks." He teased, eliciting a faint laugh from her.

"So, where are you'll at tonight?" Journey inquired.

"Nashville, Tennessee." He supplied. "Randy called me a snob because I was making fun of the natives."

She didn't laugh as expected. "Maybe he had a point. You have been a little mean lately."

He blinked at her words. "Is that a personal observation?" He asked, his voice tightly controlled.

"I didn't call to fight with you."

John sat down heavily on a pile of crates. "But I'm getting the feeling you didn't call to love on me either."

"We need to talk." She answered her voice full of weariness.

John closed his eyes in sudden despair. "Are you feeling okay?" He asked in concern.

She hesitated as she looked down at the home pregnancy test she held in her hand. "Yeah." She finally answered.

"Are you having problems with Ari again?" He asked when she didn't go on.

Journey sighed as she threw the stick into the trashcan. "When don't I have problems with her?" She asked bitterly.

"Well what do you think she did now?"

Outraged silence followed his comment. "Think? I don't have to think, I'm the one here dealing with the problems. I'm the one that has to apologize to the neighbors after she digs up their gardens. I'm the one that has to go to the school every time she gets sent to the principals office."

"Why do we have to go over the same ground every time we talk?" He groaned.

"Because you haven't done anything to fix it." She said anger making her voice squeak. Taking a deep breath she allowed her body to relax. "Okay, I agree this isn't what I called to talk about."

John wisely remained silent, ignoring the looks he was receiving from stage hands as they passed him by.

"Why don't we go out, just the two of us. Something romantic and fun where we don't talk about anything that's bothering us?" She suggested.

"I don't think we can. I mean I have to go to Texas tomorrow. Mark has something to talk about and then I have to be in California on Thursday for that promotional spot on that show. And then the house shows this weekend." He ticked off the list on his fingers.

"Oh."

He could hear the wealth of disappointment in that one little word. "Listen I'll take Ari with me to Texas. You can have some alone time and pamper yourself or whatever it is that women do."

"Yeah, just what I need."

He searched her words for sarcasm. "I don't know what you want from me anymore." He said tiredly. "Is it marriage? Is that what's all the fighting has been about lately? Do you want me to marry you?"

"Actually John, right now that's the last thing I want from you." She said quietly before hanging up.

John was left staring at his phone. Swearing he got up and stalked to his locker room. The only other occupant of the room looked up when he slammed the door.

"Man, things sure are different around here." Shelton observed as he grinned unrepentedly.

"What the hell are you talking about?" John snarled as he flung his bag into the corner of the room. Panic was clawing at his stomach and threatening to close off his airway. He took a couple of deep breaths.

"Just that with Mark taking so much time off, Paul only working the big shows, Shawn off the next couple months because he's getting married, and Dave injured..."

"Do you have a point or are you rambling just to see how much you can irritate me?" John interrupted rudely.

"I'm just saying that you and Randy act different when they're not around. And not always in a good way." Shelton pointed out.

"Yeah well seeing as how I just ruined the best relationship of my life and drove away the only woman I'm ever going to love, I don't really care that you're taking notes for the elders." He resisted the urge to bang his head against the wall.

Shelton was kind enough not to point out how dramatic the other man was being as he held up his hand. "It was just an observation." He was silent as he studied his friend. "Have you tried flowers?"

"She doesn't like flowers." John replied absently as he stared off into space.

"Dude, every girl likes flowers." Shelton said shaking his head.

"Journey doesn't." John insisted as Randy walked in.

"She doesn't what?" He asked, all anger over the earlier incident gone.

"He got in a fight with his girl and doesn't think flowers will work." Shelton was happy to explain.

"She doesn't like flowers." John muttered sullenly.

Randy narrowed his eyes at his friend. "I really don't think you know what she likes or dislikes anymore."

"So what, you think I should send her the damn flowers." He asked in exasperation as he got up to pace.

"I think you should talk to her, really talk to her." Randy told him gently. "But flowers wouldn't hurt." He looked at his watch. "I've got to go find someone." He almost ran out of the room.

"What the hell was that?" John demanded, staring at the empty door with a perplexed look on his face.

"Oh, it's so cute how you go all big brother on him." Shelton teased in a false high voice, undeterred by the look John was sending him. He shrugged in answer to the other man's question. "Where ever he's going he's made the trip six times in the hour he's been here."

Randy stepped out onto the course way of the arena, pulling his hat low to avoid being recognized. Walking quickly he walked from one concession stand to the next, his eyes searching hungrily. His heart stuttered then began beating double time as he spotted a tall brunette.

He resisted the urge to run as he attempted to navigate the thick crowds between them. The last thing he wanted was to attract attention to himself.

He mumbled quick apologies as he ran into people too slow to get out of his path. Finally he was standing behind her as she ordered several drinks from the vendor. Lifting his arm he causally bumped her in the back, holding his breath when she turned to frown at him.

His breath exploded from him as he stared in disappointment at the blue eyes staring at him disapprovingly. Mumbling an apology he turned away, not noticing how those eyes widened in surprise. He was oblivious to the gathering whispers going on around him as he once again hungrily searched the crowd.

"You're Randy Orton." A female voice cried excitedly, catching his attention. His pulse jumped as he turned to the average looking female that was staring at him in excitement.

"And you're one of the girls from the autograph session on Thursday." He gave her his hundred watt grin.

She nodded, unable to speak as she stared at him in starstruck delight.

Two security guards appeared on either side of him. "Mr. Orton we insist that you come backstage. The crowd is becoming unruly." They murmured softly as they attempted to herd him towards the back.

Randy became aware of the large crowd for the first time, pushing against him from all directions. He grabbed the girl's hand before she could be pulled away. "Is anyone here with you?" He shouted to be heard over the noise.

She shook her head no, allowing herself to be pulled along as the security team ushered him backstage.

Connecticut, Dr. Aspen's office.

"Breathe honey." Jayden advised softly as she massaged her boyfriend's neck.

Dave shrugged her hand off impatiently as he got up to pace. "I don't understand why they put you in these little rooms if they don't plan on seeing you right away." He growled.

Jayden refrained from commenting, instead pulling a book from her purse.

Dave turned to stare at her accusingly. "Why the hell did you even come? You sure as hell aren't paying attention to me."

Signing she looked up at him. "I'm here to support you, in the good and the bad. But I'm not tolerating you acting like this."

"Acting like what?" He asked suspiciously from across the room. He couldn't help but feel a sense of peace at her words. "A little boy pulling a tantrum?"

"I was going to say Randy when he's done something he knows he shouldn't do, but they both work." She teased, her lips twitching.

Dave couldn't help but laughing. "I'm sorry honey, I just, God I hate this." He turned to stare at the wall as he felt tears come to his eyes. His heart turned over as her arms came around him.

She laid her head against his broad back. "Well get through this." Neither heard the door open behind them.

"Excuse me folks." Dr. Aspen said respectfully from the door way.

"It's okay. Just tell us you have good news." Jayden gave a strained laugh as she led the big man to the set of chairs lined in fornt of the desk.

The doctor nodded as he looked them in the eye. "The treatments have done what we hoped and I feel we can safely continue on to the next step."

"That would be surgery?" Jayden ventured when Dave remained silent.

"Like we discussed, now that we are at this point we need to move fast." He pulled several pieces of paper out of a folder. "I have talked to Doctor Mallory down at Vanderbilt. He is the leading specialist in this area. You can fly down tomorrow, get the preliminaries done, and have the surgery on Wednesday."

Dave was already shaking his head. "The earliest we can do it is next Thursday."

Dr. Aspen looked shocked. "The longer we wait the more chances there are for complications. A lot can change in the next week and half."

"Dave." Jayden protested, seeing the resolve on her boyfriend's face.

He shook his head. "I'm not going to ruin the wedding with this bullshit. The wedding is on next Wednesday. We can have the surgery on Thursday. We can do a couple extra treatments to make sure conditions stay the same."

Dr. Aspen opened his mouth to protest when he was paged overhead. "If you'll excuse me I'll be back in a couple minutes."

Jayden waited until he had left the room before turning to Dave. "We have to tell them."

He raised his eyebrows. "You aren't going to argue with me about the surgery." He asked in surprise.

She shook her head. " I know better than to argue with a rock."

Dave smiled sadly. "They don't need to know." He said returning to the original subject.

"If you have surgery without telling them they might never forgive you." She warned him.

"I don't want them to get involved in this." He protested weakly, pressure squeezing his chest. He could picture the fear in Journey's eyes, could anticipate the trouble Randy would cause in retaliation.

"They're already involved, they're already sick with worry." She stressed.

"I don't want to hurt them even more than they've already been." He sighed, knowing she was right. "I want it just the four of us, our family for right now."

"John's going to Mark's tomorrow. If might be better if he told him." Journey ventured.

Dave nodded in resignation.

Nashville Tennessee, Raw

"That was wild." The young woman breathed, looking around the empty looker room. Randy smiled as he thanked the security guards.

"So what's your name?" He asked as he turned back to her. He tried to curb his impatience, not wanting to scare her before she gave him the answers he needed.

"I'm Brianna Moppet." She grinned at him. "It's okay. I know you weren't looking for me."

He winced. "There's nothing wrong with you. I mean you're cute and you're fun to be with..." he trailed off in embarrassed silence.

She laughed. "I saw the way you and Cammie were looking at each other the other day. It was instant attraction."

He blushed. "Her name's Cammie?" he asked softly.

Grinning Brianna hooked her arm through his. "You introduce me to some of the other wrestlers and I'll tell you everything you need to know."