Phil slumped down in the booth he was sitting at and picked at his food unhappily. The show was long over and instead of being back in his hotel like he wanted to be, he was stuck an at all night diner with Natalya, Cooper and Connor. He had tried to escape as soon as his match had gotten over but that hadn't worked out very well for him. He had been caught and dragged here against his will because the Lawsons just seemed to live to make him miserable. And Natalya, being an honorary member of that fucked up family, facilitated their actions and enjoyed them immensely.

"Oh come on Philly, cheer up," Natalya said as she munched on her French fries. She was sitting next to him while Cooper and Connor sat across from them. "We're supposed to be having a good time."

Phil shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. "How am I supposed to have a nice time when I didn't even want to come in the first place?"

Cooper smirked and flung a piece of hamburger meat at Phil's face. "Oh come on Princess. You gotta admit that you missed us a little."

Phil wrinkled his nose and recoiled as the meat hit him right on the chin. "No I didn't. And DON'T do that you fucking emo ass mother fucker."

"Emo ass mother fucker?" Cooper smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Wow Princess. That's some pretty strong language right there."

"You need your mouth washed out with SOAP!" Connor declared with a firm nod.

"Try it and die retard." That comment got him kicks from both Cooper and Connor and a hard elbow to the gut from Natalya. "Ow!"

"Fucking serves your right," Nattie growled, giving him such a nasty glare he was lucky it didn't kill him. "Jackass." She elbowed him once again for good measure.

He winced in pain and scooted as far into the corner as possible. "Fuck you all. Fucking those two aren't even supposed to be around any of the talent!" He pointed to Cooper and Connor and gave Nattie a heated glare.

"That's Daddy!" Connor corrected.

"Yeah," Cooper chimed in. "It's Dad who has the lifetime ban, not us."

"Well you should have one too," Phil muttered. "Because you two are just as annoying as he is."

"Why exactly are you in such a cranky mood tonight?" Cooper asked. "Seriously. I know you're usually a bitch to be around but this is starting to get ridiculous."

"Well what exactly did you expect from me?" Phil replied incredulously. "I mean really. All you've guys have ever done is make fun of me and try to make my life miserable. Why would I be happy to spend any time with you at all?"

"…Because you love us?"

Connor's innocent voice was intended to make Phil melt but that wasn't exactly what happened. Phil just rolled his eyes and tried to climb out of the booth, even with Natalya right in his way. "Move," he ordered. "I'm leaving."

"No," Natalya replied.

"Oh Jesus just let him go if he's gonna be a baby," Cooper told her. "Seriously. I'm not dealing with it."

"I know but I don't want to get up until I'm done."

"Oh Christ on a fucking cross," Phil growled. He hopped over the back of his seat and started to head for the door when Beth Phoenix walked in and practically made a beeline for their table. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Did you guys hear?" She actually looked mildly shaken up which was definitely not an easy thing to do with her. Out of all the girls in the locker room she was typically the most stoic. If she was actually shaken up by something it had to be big.

"Hear what?" Nattie asked. Cooper was looking pretty interested as well while Connor was giving absolutely no fucks. He jus snatched a couple of Nattie's French fries even though he had a whole bunch of his own and put them both in his mouth, letting them hang out as he pretended they were fangs.

"Ted's dead."

"Ted's what?" Nattie's jaw dropped in shock.

Phil's head immediately snapped in Cooper and Connor's direction. "You killed Ted?"

"What?" Cooper immediately shook his head. "No! We've been with Nat this whole time we didn't do shit."

"What the hell happened?" Nattie asked, getting up to her feet and not even looking at Phil as she slapped him upside the head. "Was he in like an accident or something?"

Beth shook her head. "No. Nobody really knows what happened though. I just know Hunter got a call from the cops saying that he's dead and Randy and Cody were with him when it happened. I don't even know where they are for sure."

"Well shit." Phil wasn't even sure what to say. He had never really been close to Ted in any sense in the word but it wasn't like he had really wished anything bad on the guy. "What the fuck should we do?"

"You could get me ice cream," Connor suggested. He blinked in surprise as everyone else gave him a dirty look. "What? What did I say?"

…

The scene in the church parking lot was complete chaos. Hunter got there to find that the police had taped the area off and were trying to keep the group of spectators that had gathered around back. "Excuse me…excuse me…move it damn it!" He quickly ran out of patience and just started pushing past people to get to the front of the crowd. As soon as he got up there one of the officers put his hands up and tried to push Hunter back.

"Sir you can't-"

"That's MY dead employee there," Hunter snapped, pointing to Ted's sheet covered body, which was being loaded up on the stretcher. "And those are MY employees you're questioning." Now he pointed to Randy and the barely awake Cody, who were being questioned by a couple of detectives. "I'm coming through damn it." He didn't give the officer any more time to object. He just pushed past him and went over to Randy and Cody, who didn't notice that he was even there until he was right next to them. "What happened?" That did come out a little more harshly than he meant it to. He couldn't really help it though. Word had already gotten back to Vince about Ted being dead and the news hadn't been taken very well. The last time someone had died on the active roster, it was Benoit and that led to the murder/suicide publicity nightmare. Given the fact that Hunter was told to find out what happened at any cost and then report right back, he was sure his father-in-law was more concerned with not having another scandal on their hands and not Ted's death itself.

"I don't know," Randy replied while Cody said something completely unintelligible.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Hunter asked angrily. "You were right there!"

"Sir-" One of the detectives was trying to get him away but of course he was being ignored.

"I mean I don't know!" Randy snapped. "He had like some fucking seizure or something! "

"Did he take anything?"

"He had some drinks…"

"But did he take any drugs?"

"I don't think so."

That wasn't really a great answer for Hunter. If Ted did take something he was going to need to know about it. He wasn't going to get the answers he needed tonight though. That much was clear. Randy didn't know shit, Cody was clearly too wasted to even know his own name and any results from the autopsy was going to take awhile to get. He was going to have to go back to Vince with nothing, which sucked for him. "Fuck!" As he kicked a stray rock on the ground, not a single person noticed the way Ted's body suddenly twitched underneath the sheet it was under.