Disclaimer: I do not own or make any money from the people/characters and situations in this story.
Author's Note: So sorry for the wait! I hadn't realized it had been so long. I hope you all enjoy and of course review! I love those and they are greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Chapter 6: Give and Take
The next few days were a learning experience for John. Gracie was a little joy that was almost always laughing and asking questions. Obviously something she had inherited from her mother who had just asked John why people needed rain gutters since it was going to get everything wet anyways and your roof protected your house. Where does she come up with those questions, he wondered to himself.
Still John was getting used to everything slowly and while he had tried to be involved with Gracie as much as he could be, he also didn't want to force his presence on her either. Even as her father, Gracie didn't know John and she had a tendency to not listen to John, to mind him or otherwise. After almost a week with Gracie, John felt more like an almost broken in babysitter rather then a father.
"Gracie," John called to her as he watched her starting to mark on her desk and not just her paper, "Gracie don't mark on your desk, just your paper okay?"
Gracie nodded her head, her straight hair bouncing with the motion and continued what she was doing, marking on both the paper and her desk.
"Gracie!" John said again, "please stop that," he tried to sound with more authority and when he still got nothing he walked over and stopped her hand from drawing on the desk. "Gracie, I asked you to stop that. You don't want to mark all over your pretty desk."
Gracie looked up at her daddy with squinted eyes and a puckered mouth, "Do too! Mommy said I could!"
John sighed, "No she didn't Gracie; now please stop it," he tried again.
"You're mean!" Gracie howled, tears already appearing to brim in her blue eyes.
God how does she do that? John thought as he watched Gracie instantaneously start to cry on him…again.
"I'm sorry you're mad, but you have to stop doing bad stuff, okay?" he asked Gracie who was still revving her tears up on him, "please listen to me, please?" he begged her.
"NO!" was her final response before the wails started to fill the room.
John covered his face with his hands as he listened to his daughter cry. It was so hard getting her to listen to him! He wasn't being unreasonable was he? He just asked her to stop drawing on her desk, not to stop entirely. Why was she freaking out on him so badly? What was wrong with him that was making her freak out so badly?
"I want my mommy!" Gracie demanded in between tears.
"She'll be here soon," John said taking his hands from his face to look at his wristwatch, "an hour at the most okay?"
"But I wan-want her no-now!" Gracie stuttered, the tears clogging her speech.
"But she's at work Gracie. I promise mommy will be here soon okay?" John told her, hoping to appease her. All he got were more tears.
After a few minutes of this and Gracie seemingly not letting up at all, John started racking his brain for something to stop her tirade. He had already had to go to Rachael for help with Gracie before. He had never really had to deal with children intimately before. He had only been around children a lot when John himself had been a kid or when he saw fans of the WWE. Those kids didn't exactly get to be babysat by John Cena though; just a hug, pat on the head, how you doing here's your autograph. John was sure that wouldn't work with Gracie.
Rachael had told him that Gracie was just pushing her boundaries. It was normal at her age to do that to anyone, but especially since John was new to her and Gracie wasn't sure how to react to him, she had really been pushing him hard. Rachael told John that he needed to be firm, but fair and just let Gracie know what was over the line and what was not. After that everything would be fine, Gracie was an easy child to get along with once she knew that.
John thought Rachael had went soft in the head. He had tried being gentle but firm and letting Gracie know what was cool and what was not, but that kid would have none of it. If it came out of John's mouth it was crap.
John, having his patience worn and a little more then aggravated, decided to be a little more firm, maybe she'll finally listen then, he thought, hoped.
"Gracie, if you don't stop crying because I told you that you couldn't draw on your desk, then I'm not going to let you draw at all," he said.
Gracie looked up with wide eyes at John, she let out a few whimpers and looked around her room for some support. Finally she just looked defeated and slowly put down her marker, got up, walked over to her bed and threw herself onto it. John could hear her little sobs being muffled into the comforter.
John wanted to go hang himself right then. Not only because he felt like the hugest jerk in the world because she was crying and it was his fault, but this was making him just as miserable as it was making Gracie.
John sat down where he was standing before. He just plopped himself down and sat there watching Gracie. He shifted slightly and pulled out a Bratz doll that had been stabbing his ass with its high heeled foot. He tossed it in the direction of her toy bin and forgot about it.
Time seemed to pass slowly as the father and daughter sat apart and wondered what had went wrong. Finally though, John heard tires crunching gravel and he knew that Rachael was home again. It filled him with relief to know he was off the hook and that Gracie would soon be all smiles again.
John didn't bother to get up when he saw Gracie's head jerk up when her mothers car door shut and she jumped off the bed and ran for her mom.
"Mommy!" Gracie cried and ran out of the house and into her mother's waiting arms.
Rachael smiled and then frowned as she hugged her daughter to her. Picking her up she asked, "How was your day sweetie? Did you have fun at school?"
"Yea," Gracie muttered quietly, trying to dig her face into Rachael's shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Rachael asked her as she got Gracie to finally look at her. She was crying. Sighing, Rachael wiped away her tears.
"Daddy is mean," Gracie said and started crying again.
"Oh honey," Rachael said as she got in the door and sat on the couch. She rocked Gracie for awhile, calming her baby down. It was hard to understand a pre-schooler anyways, let alone when they were upset.
When Gracie had calmed herself more, Rachael repositioned Gracie on her lap so she could look at her properly when she spoke to her. "Gracie, what happened?" she asked.
"Daddy was mean to me and wouldn't let me draw," Gracie said her lip trembling a little, but holding firm.
"Why wouldn't he let you draw?" Rachael asked, reserving judgment on John for now. He was new to parenting and while Rachael knew she was far from perfect, she also knew that John liked having his way too.
"He's mean!" Gracie yelped.
"Because she was drawing on her desk," came a deep voice from behind Rachael and Gracie.
Rachael turned her head as much as she could and saw that John's mood matched Gracie's perfectly.
Ouch.
"Were you drawing on your desk?" she asked Gracie.
"No," Gracie lied meekly.
It was definitely a lie and Rachael was not fooled by it, she turned her head again, "What happened?" she asked John.
John walked over and sat on the couch. He rubbed his jaw and winced a little, "She was drawing and started drawing on her desk too, so I asked her to stop and she didn't. I asked her to stop again and she said no, so I said she couldn't draw at all if she kept drawing on the desk too. She didn't like that," John finished.
"Is that what really happened Grace?" Rachael asked sternly.
Gracie looked up alarmed. Her mommy didn't call her Grace unless she was in trouble. She shrugged her shoulders and gave John a dirty look. "You're mean," she told him.
"Grace," Rachael said firmly, "First John, I mean, daddy was right to tell you not to draw on your desk. You know better. Second, I don't want you saying daddy's mean when he is just making you mind. He doesn't want you to be a bad girl like how mommy doesn't want you to be a bad girl."
Gracie looked upset by Rachael siding with him and he actually felt bad about it. He was right and he felt bad about it.
"Do you understand you were being bad?" Rachael asked Gracie who nodded her head. "Then go sit in your time out chair okay? I'll tell you when you can get up."
Gracie slid off of Rachael's lap and walking like the words 'time out chair' were code for the guillotine, she went into the dining room where her time out chair was in the corner.
John watched this quiet exchange and was amazed, "God, how do you do that?" he asked Rachael.
"What?" Rachael asked him back.
"Get her to listen with just telling her once," John clarified, "I try and try to get her to listen to me and if she does, she's never happy to do it and throws a fit on me," he said.
Rachael smiled a little. She had had this conversation three times now with John. Every day that she had had to work and John picked Gracie up from daycare and cared for her for a few hours, something disastrous had happened each time. Gracie was breaking John in the hard way for sure. "You just have to be firm with her," Rachael said.
"I try to be firm, but it just makes me look like a bad guy and she hates me," John laminated.
Rachael smiled at John. He had just thrown himself into this and he was trying so hard to be the best dad ever. That was a very hard task to do, let alone when he figured out that sometimes you had to butt heads with your kid because you knew what was better for them, even if they didn't like it. John had a lot of good qualities for a dad, he was smart and funny. He could get down to Gracie's level and play with her imaginary friends at her tea parties as good as any other four year old, but he also was stubborn and impatient.
John wanted things done his way and he didn't like changing course. It had been a little bit of a surprise for Rachael to find that out. John used to not be so set in his ways. It had just went and showed her how much time had passed and how she didn't know John, this man she had created a life with, anymore. It was a thought that made her sad.
"Time maybe then," Rachael answered him, "She's still getting used to you and getting to know you. Maybe you two just need time and then it will be a lot easier."
"Maybe," John nodded his head glumly. All John knew was that this was going a lot harder then he had expected. Sure he knew that he knew shit when it came to parenting, but damn this was hard. He couldn't even get through an entire afternoon without screwing up and making Gracie cry and want her mom.
"John," Rachael said knocking John out of his stupor, "Why don't you go get Gracie out of time out and play in the back yard with her or something? I'll make some dinner."
"Are you sure that's okay?" John asked.
Rachael thought about it for just a moment. Just a few days ago she had been crazy jealous of how much John and Gracie looked alike and acted alike. How she didn't have Gracie all to herself. Now Rachael had a little more perspective and knew that she was still needed. That John and Gracie weren't going to go off into the sunset without her. At least not yet.
"Yes John," Rachael said looking at him, "You're her father, everything is going to be fine."
John just sighed and nodded his head. He got up and went into the dining room. There his daughter was sitting in her pink time out chair, facing a blank wall. "Gracie," John said to get her attention.
Gracie turned and looked at him and then turned around again. John took a deep breath, the little break of Gracie's time out had did wonders to clear his head. Probably that mini pep talk with Rachael had too. "Gracie time out is up. Mom's going to make us all dinner, so let's stay out of her way and go play outside, okay?"
Gracie didn't say anything, but continued sitting in her chair. John looked at her brown hair and decided to try something new. Maybe it would work. He made sure he made a little noise so that Gracie would know he was moving away from her. He walked through the arch way and into the kitchen and moved right on to the back door. He opened it up and leaving it open went and got Gracie's favorite thing, her soccer ball. John then walked back into the house and back into the dining room.
Gracie was watching him intently now, wondering what he was doing. John put the ball on the floor and gently kicked it at Gracie's chair. It quickly rolled and hit her chair and bounced off under the table.
"That is not 'sposed to be in here," Gracie scolded John.
"Well you wouldn't play with me outside," John answered. He smiled a little at the way she mispronounced 'supposed'. She tried to talk so grown up, but her voice still had that baby tone to it and sometimes words just didn't come out right. It was incredibly cute and gooey and now he knew why Paul 'HHH' Levesque made everyone listen to his stories about his daughters. They were all just so cute.
"You can't play soccer in here!" Gracie told him, trying to get him to understand that her mommy had said no outside toys in the house.
"Come outside with me then," John tempted her.
"I don't want to," Gracie said, still looking a bit pouty at him.
"Okay then," John said retrieving the ball and kicking it again, making it bounce off the wall and spin away crazily in the other direction. He got the ball and made it bounce off his head and ricochet off into the kitchen.
Gracie giggled, "You are silly!" she announced pointing at him. She got up and followed her daddy to see what else he would do with her soccer ball.
John was doing a happy dance in his head that Gracie was interested in what he was doing. He kicked the ball out into the yard, "I bet you can't get it before me," he dared her and Gracie looked up for the challenge. She ran to the door and John let her get to the soccer ball first. She kicked it hard and it went sailing over a small hill.
"GOAL!" she yelled and held up her hands and did a victory dance.
They played soccer until Gracie's cheeks were red, then John sat down on the grass and started trying to twirl the soccer ball like one would with a basketball on his finger. He wasn't too good at it.
"What are you doing," Gracie asked him, sitting beside of him.
"I'm trying to spin the ball on my finger," John asked, accomplishing it for only a moment before its balance was lost.
"You are the best soccer player in the world!" Gracie announced watching that second of balance with awe.
John laughed, it seemed he had been forgiven from earlier. That was one thing he liked about Gracie's personality, she seemed to forgive as fast as she got angry. "Thanks, but no I'm not. They wouldn't let me on a soccer team if I was the last guy they had."
"Why?" Gracie asked.
"Because I don't play soccer professionally, I'm a wrestler," John answered.
"What's that?" Gracie asked curiously.
John nodded his head. Rachael had yet to expose Gracie to the world of wrestling. Maybe she thought Gracie was to young to see it and understand. Maybe Rachael wasn't into wrestling anymore. Maybe she just didn't wasn't to see John on there.
"It's where I wrestle someone else and win championships," John tried to answer as simply and vaguely as he could. He didn't know the proper procedure to talk about how he pretty much fought other guys in the ring and people thought it was a good thing to a four year old.
"Does it have soccer balls," Gracie asked.
John laughed, that was a crazy question, but he was getting used to that sort of thing from Gracie, "No, sorry," he answered.
"Oh," Gracie said and seemed to dismiss wrestling if there wasn't a soccer ball in it.
But that comment did make John start thinking. It was already Saturday and he needed to probably leave for the next Raw tomorrow some time and at the latest Monday morning. Yet he couldn't think of why he wanted to leave Gracie at all. He was just getting used to being around her and being with her and now he had to leave again? It sucked. John wondered how Gracie and Rachael were going to react to it. He had heard the other guys in the locker room talking about leaving their kids and how much they missed them. He was starting to really understand what they were saying and he had known his kid for less then a week!
"Dinner!" Rachael called out from the back door. She could see John and Gracie sitting in the grass and John frowning as he was trying to get the soccer ball to balance and spin for Gracie's amusement. It was cute and looked like something they had done every day their entire lives.
Gracie immediately got up and ran, "Dinner! Dinner! Dinner!" she sang running past her mom and into the kitchen.
John was much slower to get to Rachael and his frown still hadn't disappeared from his face. Strange, Rachael thought, I thought they had got over their fight? She gave John a bit of a questioning look as he looked at her.
John stopped in front of Rachael and watched her confused expression run across her face, "We need to talk," he told her. This was something they needed to work out as soon as they could.
To be continued!