3
Dottie learned that Colby lived in a rather large house. A house? It looked more like a castle as they drove up in the driveway.
"It's so good to be home." Colby said as they got out of the SUV his mother brought.
Mrs. Franklin, she did not correct Dottie when she was addressed as such, got out from the passenger side seat. "Kevin has been protecting Cait since she got here."
"Yorkshire Terriers were bred to protect homes, like little alarm systems." Dottie said as she got out of the car. "They bark a lot, in alert, mostly."
"Yeah, Kevin never shuts up. Sounds like someone I know." Cait said in a tone that Dottie couldn't catch but she did see a small smile on her face directed at Colby.
Inside the big house, a little dog came running up. Like all terrier breeds, it was barking. Colby knelt down to pick it up but it ran around him and straight up to Cait. Dottie laughed as the little dog hopped on its hind legs so that Cait could pick it up.
"Really, Kevin?" Colby asked the small dog whose attention turned from Cait and started smelling Dottie.
"May I hold him?" Dottie asked.
"By all means, do it." Cait said as she handed the dog off to Dottie.
"Yorkies are hypoallergenic, because their fur is more like human hair." Dottie said as she walked with the small dog in her arms.
Just feeling the fur, feeling the small little creature in her embrace was good enough for her to ignore that there were other people in the house besides their little close knit group.
"Well that's rude." A guy Dottie had never met said.
"Brandon, stop. It's okay." Mrs. Franklin said as Dottie looked over at the guy who was standing nearby.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was rude. Hi," She stood up with the small dog tucked into her arms. "I'm Dottie O'Connor."
The man had Colby's hair, even some of the same facial structure. Colby had told her at one point that he had an older brother. But his brother sort of eyed Dottie strangely, to the point she moved so she was back next to Fergal.
"Dude, that's rude." Colby crossed his arms. "That's Dottie you're talking about, Bran."
"I didn't mean it, I'm sorry." Dottie said.
"Come on, Sisser, we know you." Cait said. "I'll show you where you can stay for Thanksgiving. Come on, just ignore that jerk face."
Dottie looked at Fergal, who smiled slightly. She knew she was rude, she'd just been so excited to see the dog who licked away her single tear that fell from her cheek.
Cait escorted Fergal and Dottie upstairs. It hadn't seemed so big on the outside but Dottie liked the smaller apartment better. Her home with Fergal was comfortable, there was just too much space.
"I really am sorry, Cait. I didn't mean to be rude. Today has been hard." Dottie said.
"I know, I know how much you hate flying. Colby knows, I made sure to warn Holly about some of your problems. I got the room ready just for you." Cait said as she opened a door to one of the upstairs rooms.
The bed had black covers with black pillows. Sitting in the corner of the room was a sewing machine.
Putting Kevin down, Dottie went to inspect the new sewing machine. The little dog trotted along after her.
"I even got you some bolts of cloth to do something with." Cait said.
"Thank you, Cait. I like this room better now." She turned and smiled at her sister.
"I'll just go get our things. Time out, Dottie." Fergal said from the door. When she looked at him he smiled at her.
She nodded as she sat down on the bed and then fell back.
Fergal came back with their things a little bit later. He put the luggage down next to the closet and crawled up on the bed so that he was right behind Dottie. She was laying on her side petting Kevin the Yorkie, who was snoozing with his head on her arm.
The headache she had was from all the excitement she had throughout the day. The time out meant that she could be quiet and not interact with anyone, but Fergal always knew what to do. He wrapped his arm around her stomach and pressed his face into the back of her head. He often kissed her hair, played with it or just simply rubbed her stomach.
Dottie reached down, grabbed Fergal's hand and brought it up to her mouth so she could kiss his knuckles.
"Love you, Dottie." Fergal mumbled.
"I love you, too, Fergal." She said as she hugged his hand into her chest.
Dottie woke up later. There was a high pitched alarm going off and it wasn't a cell phone. She froze, burying her head under the pillow so that she couldn't hear the headache inducing screeching scream of something. Even with her head covered, Dottie could still hear the high pitched wailing alarm going off.
The sound didn't last long, but it was long enough for her to realize that Kevin wasn't there, Fergal wasn't either. She sat up and smoothed down her hair. She did smell something though, something that smelled burnt.
As she got to the top of the stairs, she heard people with raised voices.
"I swear, Colby." Mrs. Franklin then coughed.
"Bleeding hell," Fergal cursed.
She went downstairs and to her right was the kitchen, which smelt like smoke.
"I didn't know! I'm half tired!" Colby's raised voice.
"Get out of here, Colby. I'll clean it up." Cait said as Dottie got to the doorway that went into the kitchen.
The smell of smoke was thick. There were windows open and Mrs. Franklin was scraping something that was on a stove.
"What happened?" Dottie asked as Kevin ran up to her.
"I tried to make something to eat, that's all, Dot. I'm just tired." Colby said as he ran his hands over his head.
"And I said we could just order pizza." Cait grumbled as she was throwing something away in the trash can.
Fergal stood at a side door, the cold Iowa air was coming in and fanning some of the smell out with a newspaper.
"If you're tired, you need to go to sleep." Dottie looked at Colby.
"Yeah, go to bed, Big Guy." Cait added as she turned to look at him. "You drove all the way back from Chicago, you need to sleep."
"I slept on the plane." He rubbed his face.
"Colby," Dottie mimicked what he did. "Go sleep, even if it is for an hour. Please." She then pulled on his black hoodie to get his attention. "Please?"
"Fine, fine. I'm going." He threw his hands up and yet he still walked away.
He stomped up the stairs and a moment later the sound of a door slamming was heard from where Dottie stood.
"He's always doing something like this." Mrs. Franklin said as she looked at Dottie. "I'm sorry you had to get woken up to that noise."
"I'm just glad that the kitchen didn't burn down." She looked around. "What did he do, anyway?"
"Oddly enough, burnt a pan of food." Fergal said. He left the door open then walked up to Dottie to give her a kiss. "Sleep well?"
She nodded. "I did. But now I'm wide awake. What can I do?"
"Nothing. You're our guests, you shouldn't have to deal with Colby's messes. He's always getting in trouble like this. He broke a hideabed twenty years ago because him and his brother were trying out wrestling moves." Mrs. Franklin said as she got a spray out of the bottom of the sink.
"Where is his brother? I wanted to apologize…"
"You're not apologizing to him." Mrs. Franklin interrupted. "Look, sweetie, my son didn't know much about you. Cait told me that you love animals and she knew that you have a problem with traveling by plane. You need your time to adjust. Sometimes I need to have my own quiet time after dealing with Black and Brave and that frat house Colby set up in Moline."
Dottie didn't know what to say or do. It looked like Cait and Mrs. Franklin had everything under control, Kevin came in from outside and ran up to her.
"Do you mind if Dottie and I take Kevin for a walk?" Fergal asked the older woman.
"Sure, that would be long enough to get this kitchen aired out and the pizzas would have arrived by then."
"Do I have to look nice for Thanksgiving? Do I have to do anything?"
"Come as you are, and no you are not doing anything." Mrs. Franklin said. "You're our guests here."
"But…" Fergal took her hand.
"Right now, we need to talk about something." Fergal said. "Where is Kevin's leash?"
"Next to the front door as you walk in." Mrs. Franklin said as she turned to get back to cleaning.
Dottie tried to ask Fergal what he wanted to talk about but he didn't answer her as he led her out of the kitchen with Kevin in tow. He handed Dottie a black leather leash and she hooked it to Kevin's collar before they got their jackets on and then left the big house.
"What did you want to talk about?" Dottie asked.
"Nothing." He said as he took Dottie's hand. "The conversation seemed to be upsetting you. I figured you would have liked to leave and take a walk."
The sun was lower, it was getting dark later and later because it was heading into the winter season. Next month would be December and that meant a lot of stuff going on for the company. If her mind was right, she did not get her monthly schedule for December yet.
"What are we doing for Christmas?" She asked as she looked at him.
Fergal sighed, closed his eyes for moment and then opened them.
"I'll be performing."
"But…"
He pulled her under his arm. "I always video call my parents, and my siblings on Christmas anyway. I would rather spend any and all time with you, Dottie."
She looked down. "It means I won't spend time with Dad for my first Christmas. Because if you work, I work."
"Such is life when you're with the WWE. A lot of us have to sacrifice our time away from our families."
Dottie nodded. "Do you think Cait will want to come on the road again before she gets too much bigger as the baby grows?"
"I don't know, you may have to ask her yourself." His grip tightened on her shoulders.
The neighborhood where Colby lived was upscale, or more suburb. Whatever it was, there was one house that seemed to be decorated too early for Christmas.
The three of them came upon this house that had lights and decorations all over the place. Twinkling lights in trees, there were a few blow up snowmen, even a Santa and his sled out in the large front yard of the two story house.
"Ms. Stephanie wants me to start working on going out to the ring." Dottie said as she looked at the corner of the yard where there was a Nativity Scene, where there were statues of donkeys, sheep and a camel looking at the Baby Jesus in the manger. "The way she talks makes me worried that she won't let me get used to the idea."
"Then we should start with house shows. Do a small skit with you and Drew. But we will have to put it through with her and the writers. That's how it works. They make the storylines."
"I like that idea." She smiled. "Drew I can trust, especially with Colby in a storyline with Jon. He could show me the ropes. How do you run ropes. That is a phrase I had heard before, several times. How do you do that?"
He smiled at her and began explaining even the simplest wrestling terms for her.
They stayed out for a while, going around the block, which had a park nearby. Fergal had Dottie hold Kevin in her lap as he pushed her on the swing for a little bit. It was one of those times where she laughed, her boyfriend acting like a little kid was so cute especially when he got in the swing next to her.
"Watch me, Dottie." He said as he was swinging higher.
"Fergal, don't jump off that high."
But he didn't listen to her. He jumped out of the swing on the highest of arcs and dropped down to his feet, before rolling. Similar to what he did when an opponent would get out of his finisher, the Coup De Gras, but he ended up on his back and stayed there. Dottie dragged her feet to stop herself and as Fergal lay there on the ground, she ran up to him.
"Fergal! Fergal!" She cried as she looked down at him.
His eyes were closed, he wasn't moving and that scared her the most. She did know CPR. As she tried to get him to wake up Dottie put her hand on his chest and leaned down to see if he was breathing.
The next thing she knew, Fergal grabbed her up and Kevin was dropped. She was rolled on her back in the frosty grass of the playground and her boyfriend was over her, pinning her hands on either side of her head. He was smiling.
"Got ya, Lovely."
"You scared me, Fergal!" She fought to get her hands free. "Why did you do that? Why would you do that?"
"Because," he leaned down so that his face was close to hers. "I love how you care for me."
"So you just pretended to die because you wanted me to help you? Why? That's foolish, you could have actually hurt yourself. You…"
He quieted her by kissing her.
Hope you liked this update. I'm doing one more chapter. See you then.