John woke up to an annoying buzzing noise. He couldn't figure out where he was for a minute, but he remembered the previous evening quickly and then searched out the noise. It was an alarm clock, and it said 0830. There was a note on top of it. Once he shut the alarm off, he read the note.

"John-
Thanks for being such good company last night. I have a hell of a day in front of me, and so I had to get out of here. Feel free to stay as long as you want, take a shower, have some breakfast.
There are a couple of scrambled egg burritos in the fridge, pop then in the microwave for 3 minutes and they're good to go. Please let the dog in before you leave and when you head out the door, just push "arm" on the pad in the front hall, the door will lock behind you. You're welcome to hang out here anytime. -Charlie

PS-if anything comes up there before you leave, my cell # is on the whiteboard by the phone."

He thought about this woman, so unlike the ones he usually met on the road. He liked hanging out with her, but not so sure she felt the same way; she clearly put up a barrier physically. Definitely cute though. No time to give heavy thought to it, though-he had things to do. He found her number where she said it would be, and he wrote it down, he wasn't completely sure why, he just knew he wasn't NOT getting her number...and tucked the note in his wallet and set out to start his day. He had a couple of Make-a-Wish wishes to grant at a local Children's Hospital and he was due to meet up with a rep from that company and a WWE photographer.

Putting together some personal packages for the kids, with his merchandise and a handwritten note, he made sure he reviewed each case and each wish so he'd be able to give the kids his best. Then he had to drive to Smackdown. This close to Wrestlemania, he was expected to be on more than just Raw.

Charlie was in the cafeteria at Children's Hospital, the only place with open Wi-Fi, finishing up her reports from last night, and getting a last minute jolt of caffeine and sugar. She volunteered as often as she could, because no one could quite act like as much of a child as she could, and she loved to be the instigator of games that all the kids could play and enjoy, even the most sick. There were not many people around anymore that were here when her child was a patient.
She was a fixture in the halls in those days, with a lot of other parents. When a child doesn't make it and the parents need to know they aren't alone, she's first in line to say "I was where you are. I got through it, and you will too..and here's how." Not one for platitudes and sympathy, Charlie laid down a grief plan for herself, and she shared it with anyone who needed help searching for a starting point to recovery. It's been a long while now, fifteen years, but the process is still the same.

John went and saw his first wish, a young girl who thought he was the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen. She immediately put on the sweatbands, and made her nurse and her mother promise that when her chemo session was over, she could put the shirt on. He stayed with her longer than he had planned, because he couldn't say no when this little jewel asked if he would stay until she fell asleep, and he always keeps his promises to the kids-but it made him later than he was supposed to be to see his other fan. When he got there, the boy wasn't in his room-his nurse nodded her head-and said "I did everything I could to get him to stay here because I knew you were coming, but Miss Charlotte is here, and she's got all the kids in this unit running hither and yon all over the building on a scavenger hunt. Last I heard, they had crashed the board of directors meeting to get something from them, or get them to do something."

The unit secretary came back from her break. They're all in the day room-did you hear what she did this time? She got the Chairman to sing 'I'm a Little Teapot', in the middle of a budget meeting."

The nurse chuckled. "She's crazy. Absolutely certifiable. How old is she today, anyway?" No one seemed to know, exactly.

There was an MD doing chart notes at the desk. He said "I remember her from the late 80s. She was doing her internship in the trauma center at county when I was doing my ER rotation during my residency-that was 87 or 88. Big heavy metal band hair and the darkest sense of humor I'd ever seen in someone so young. She's at least 42 or so."

The secretary was gathering plates and forks from her stash. "Do you have the cake? She turned to John. "Oh, Mr. Cena, it's Miss Charlotte's birthday and the only celebration she ever wants is that the kids do cake and ice cream, so we try and make sure we do that. I can get TJ out to see you first,though."

John shook his head. "There's no way I'm interrupting. I'd like to watch, if you can find a place for me to see them without anyone seeing me."

She nodded. "No problem. Once there's cake in the room, the kids really are only interested in getting some of it. I'll go in the front door, and you can stand at the back door and watch from there."

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS CHARLOTTE!", screamed the roomful of kids, who immediately launched into something that was supposed to be Happy Birthday, but lots of them didn't know the words, so it was this tuneless loud noise with "yoooou" every few seconds.

The screaming and giggling started again, and John stood at the edge of the door and peered into the room.

There, in the middle of the floor sat his new friend, Charlie. Hardassed, sarcastic Charlie..who was starting a food fight by throwing cake at dying children, who just for a little while, forgot they were dying. It was the perfect combination of disbelief and yet complete appropriateness of what he knew about her made him laugh, and that laugh echoed throughout the room. Everyone in the room-except Charlie who had frosting in both eyes-turned to see what the noise was.

TJ, who had made him his wish, recognized him immediately, as did half the room. "JOHN CENA!" He stood up, pulled his IV pole along next to him and said "I can't believe you're here!"

The Unit Secretary who had come with towels to help clean the mess and maybe help Charlie see again said "He's here to visit you, TJ! Why don't you show him your room?"

Meanwhile, Charlie-who hadn't said a thing or even looked his direction-was frozen where she sat. She thought back to the night before, if she'd mentioned coming here today or anything about the hospital and she came up empty. He was here to see TJ, apparently-this must really be a genuine coincidence.

An hour or so later, when Charlie had done as good a job as she could at getting cake out of her hair and changing into the scrubs she was given, she went out into the 5th floor reception area, got some goodbye hugs from the kids and promises to be back next week,
and she went and pushed the elevator button. The floor was quiet, John must have gone.

He sidled up next to her and cleared his throat. " Please don't hurt me, I'm not touching you. I haven't quite gotten over the last time I tried that. How can you leave without seeing if I was still here?"

"You were busy with some awesome kids-TJ is a favorite of mine-and you were being John Cena, WWE Superstar. I'm not going to butt into that. Doing what you do is critical-you can't believe what happens to their outlook, and consequently their healing, when someone famous like you makes time to make them a priority in your day."

"I also saw Jessie, and sat with her through most of her chemo treatment."

"Jessie's a gorgeous girl."

"She's got some incredibly aggressive tumors, I hope she has more time than what I have read about her type of cancer."

She looked at him skeptically. "Oh yeah? What did you read? And now that I think about it, how do you know what illness she has?"

"Make a Wish sends me a pretty comprehensive bio of each child that I'm going to see, so I can talk to the child about things going on in their life, what they like/dislike, things like that. When they give me the name of what's wrong with them, I look it up and educate myself a little on it in case it comes up."

"You know, Wikipedia not source material.", she said.

"How about you give me a little credit, here. I use WebMd!"

"You WHAT?" says Charlie, looking up at John, who is trying his best to look casual while the corners of his mouth twitch.

"Dammit!"

"Yes, Miss Charlotte?"

The elevator opened. She sighed and shook her head and said "Have a great rest of your day. I didn't plan on having this much clean up for myself, and I have a schedule to keep. Good to see you again, though."

She pushed the button for the first floor and gave him a smile and a wave, and the doors closed.

John and his entourage left shortly after.

The unit secretary and the nurse looked at each other, and then back at the elevators.

"wow, you could cut that chemistry with a knife."

"No kidding, and Charlie has no clue."