AN: Man, I am just a story writing MACHINE today! Since I posted a chapter at like one this morning, was that two yesterday and two today, or one yesterday and three today? Either way, that's like FOUR chapters in three days. Congratulations, me, I have just DOUBLED the story! Whoop whoop!

(Randy)

John and I went to the next arena the next day alone. Jess had rode with Ted and Cody, and when I reached the locker room, I saw her leisurely sprawled across a couch playing with her iPod. The headphones were firmly plugged in her ears, and she looked up at me lazily before going back to her game. John cocked his eyebrow and looked between the two of us.

"Go on," he said.

"What?" I demanded.

"Go on and apologize!"

"What, why?"

"Because it's your fault!"

"My fault?" He jabbed me painfully with his elbow. "Alright, alright, I'm goin'!" I went and sat down next to her on the couch. "Hey, uh, Jess?" She ignored me and continued to play whatever game she was playing. "Jessie?" She glanced over at me, then looked back down at her game. "Jessica." I was losing my patience now. "Alright, that's it." I grabbed the game from her.

"Hey!"

"You listen to me!"

"Oh, are we about to have a conversation?" she asked in mock surprise. "I wasn't aware I was intelligent enough to have a real conversation."

"Shut up," I said. "I'm sorry about yesterday, alright? I was just worried about you! You've got to let us know where you are, though!"

"I'm not going to just run away from y'all!"
"Well it wouldn't be the first time, now would it?" She just looked at me with this hurt look. "I didn't mean that."

"Oh sure," she said, sounding like there was a lump growing in her throat. "Y'know what? Why don't I just leave?" She got up, but I grabbed her arm.

"You're not going anywhere!" I snarled.

"Sure!" she said back.

"Y'know what?" I let go of her. "Fine, go on. But if you don't listen to anything else I say tonight, please, please, PLEASE don't come back to the room until somebody tells you we're all done changing, alright?"

"Whatever, I'm done here," she said before stomping out the room. John just shook his head at me.

"You're really bad at this."

"Shut. Up."

(Jessie)

I don't know what I had been expecting from the man. He's always been my favorite wrestler. And ever since I met him, I had looked up to him for a reason I didn't even understand. Apparently I was wrong. Everything was going good until yesterday. What did he expect from me? Why didn't he think I could look after myself? I huffed angrily and wondered exactly where he expected me to go now. Oh my, God forbid, Randy didn't know where I was! I punched a wall in frustration.

"Hey now, Jess, that's probably not the best idea." I turned and saw Ted walking towards me.

"Sorry, Teddy," I said sheepishly. He put an arm around my shoulders and hugged me to him.

"He didn't mean it, y'know."

"Sure."

"Remember what I told you the first couple days you were here? He doesn't like being wrong. He'll get over himself in a little while." He patted my shoulder. "Why don't you just go talk to him? You can both apologize for being bull headed." He laughed and shook his head. "You'd have been better off saying you were HIS cousin instead of John's."

"He told me not to go back to the locker room," I grumbled.

"He didn't want you walking in on anybody naked." My eyes grew wide in understanding. "There wouldn't be anybody with you, so he didn't want you wandering back in. See, he does care!"

"Oh…" I said silently.

"Anyway, I've got things to take care of. Give it about 20 minutes to let them get ready and then head over there, alright?"

"You got it." I hugged him back. "Thanks, Teddy."

"Any time, kid."

Ted and I went to catering and sat with John for a while. Ted explained to John what we had talked about, and John approved.

"He should be done just about now. Why don't you head over there? Be sure to knock, though, with the mood HE'S in," John said. I smiled at him.

"Y'all are the best. I'll see you later!"

I headed on down to the locker room and took a deep breath. This was it, I was ready to stop being stupid and fix this mess that two hard headed folks had gotten into. I knocked on the door.

"Randy?" There wasn't an answer. "Randy, you in here?" I heard a grunt come from the other side. "Can I come in?" Another grunt. I opened the door. I saw a big frame bent over Randy's bag. "Look, Randy, I just wanted to apologize for earlier… I was being bull headed, and I wanted to see if we could just talk this out." The big frame stood and looked over at me with a sick grin. The man standing in the locker room was certainly NOT Randall Orton.

(Randy)

I finished changing and left the locker room to go find Jess. Yeah, I suppose it had been uncalled for. We needed to sit down and talk, and I'd treat her like the young adult she was. Figuring I'd find her in catering, since that's where she always was, I headed down there, leaving Cody alone in the locker room.

I picked my way down there and saw John sitting by himself. I sat down across from him, and he cocked his head.

"Did you already talk to Jessie?" I shook my head.

"I haven't seen her since that incident earlier."

"She went looking for you. Ted talked some sense into her. We figured that if we left you alone long enough, you'd see sense on your own."

"Well you were right. Where'd she look for me at?"

"We sent her back to the locker room." I frowned.

"I told her not to go there."

"Yeah, well, we waited until we were sure you would be done. Ted followed her there to make sure you didn't yell at her or anything. Why don't you run on down there now?" I nodded and got up. "And Randy?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't do anything stupid."

I headed down there and was surprised to hear yelling coming from the locker room. I opened up the door and was stunned to see mayhem. Dave Bautista was standing on one side of the room, and a dazed Jess was on the ground, Ted kneeling next to her, helping her sit up. Paul and Cody were in between them, and Steph and Vince were yelling at Dave.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?" I roared. The whole room stopped and turned to look at me.

"He hit her!" Cody exclaimed. "Dave hit Jess!"
"What?" I demanded.

"I did no such thing, Randy," Dave said coolly.

"He was puttin' somethin' in your bag," Jess slurred. She tried to get up, but Ted held her down.

"Just chill out for a second there, hot shot," he said gently.

"C'mon, Randy," Dave said. "I wouldn't do anything to hurt you. We've been friends for a long time. I just walked in here to come see you, and this brat's sneaking around. So I tried to stop her, and she tripped. It's not my fault."

"He's lying!" Jess exclaimed, almost in tears.

"Yeah, it's true, Randy," Cody said.

"I want him out of here!" Vince yelled.

"You'd better stay back!" Paul warned Dave as he tried to step forward. Everyone was yelling.

"SHUT UP!" The whole room stopped again. I turned to Jess. "I thought I told you not to come back here!" Her mouth opened up almost comically.
"I came back here looking for you! To apologize!" she said, sounding more coherent now.

"We'll talk later," I told her.

"Randy!" Ted said accusingly.

"Would someone please tell me what's going on?" Jess got up, swatting Ted away when he tried to keep her down. Paul tried to pull her into a hug, but she shoved him.

"I just want to be alone, please," she said before dashing out the room.

"Ted, go with her," Vince ordered.

"Yessir," he said respectfully before following her out.

"And Dave, get out of my sight," he said, anger evident in his voice.

"I'm not going-"

"I SAID GET OUT OF MY SIGHT, OR I WILL HAVE YOU ARRESTED!" Dave snorted and left the room.

"Cody, would you like to inform us what has been going on?"

(Jess)

When the figure got up, it wasn't Randy Orton that was grinning at me. It was David Bautista.

"What are you doing in here?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. Just giving something to Randy." He pocketed a small orange bottle, and then walked around me, and I felt like prey being stalked by a lion. Or a tiger. Or maybe even a bear. Oh my.

"Y'know, somehow I don't believe you," I said through gritted teeth. "Where's Randy?"

"Why don't you go run along and find him?"

"Or how about you leave, and I'll go find Vince and Paul?" He lashed out suddenly, grabbing my arm painfully.

"Or how about YOU leave, and we keep this whole meeting our little secret?" I was about to say something, but he put a finger over his lips and made a 'shhh'ing noise. "We don't want anyone to hear us, do you?" My face twisted in pain as he held my arm tighter. "Does that hurt?"

"I dunno, does this?" I pulled my arm back and hit him as hard as I could in the jaw. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cody coming out of the showers and Ted running into the room. Time seemed to slow down, and Dave pulled his arm back and hit ME in the face with what felt like as much force as HE could muster. I fell backwards, and in a moment, Ted was kneeling next to me and Cody was warning Dave to stay back. Vince, Paul, and Steph walked in the room, and everything exploded. Everyone was yelling, but I couldn't quite make everything make sense. After a few minutes, Randy walked in, and everything stopped, only to resume again with twice the force.

I tried to explain to Randy that Dave had been trying to plant something in his bag. Dave started saying something about how I was sneaking in the locker room, and I yelled out to defend myself. Everyone started yelling again, and Randy told us all to shut up. When he told me that he had told me that I shouldn't have been in there anyway, talking like it was MY fault that Dave had hit me.

I got out of there the moment I realized that Randy wouldn't be standing up for me. Practically running out of the room so they wouldn't see me cry, I made my way out to one of the equipment cases, running into walls on more than one occasion, in a dark hallway and hopped up on it so I could bawl my eyes out in peace. With my face buried in my knees I sat there, wondering how I could possibly be so stupid as to think that Randy could be like my father, even if only for the summer. How could I possibly be so stupid to think that I could ever get that part of my life back?

"Jess?" came a gentle southern drawl. I looked up at the figure in front of me.

"Teddy?" I sniffled. He hopped up onto the case with me without another word and sat next to me. He threw an arm around my shoulder and I leaned into it, sobbing my eyes out. I don't know how long we sat there for, but it seemed like hours before either one of us finally said anything.

"Y'know," he said gently. "This seems like it's been happening more and more lately." I looked up at him mournfully.

"I'm sorry Ted, I won't…" I tried to scoot away from him but he wouldn't let me.

"I'll have no such thing. I've been here for you this whole time, and I'll be here for you now. Just listen to me. I don't know what's wrong with Randy, but he really does genuinely care about you, alright? That's why he got worried yesterday, and that's why he was jumpy today. He's guilty for not being able to be there for you. You'll learn to get used to him.

"No I won't," I said quietly. "I'm goin' back home tomorrow." He looked down at me incredulously.

"Are you crazy?" he asked. "You can't leave, because then I'd have to stop you, and then I'd go to jail for kidnapping. And you certainly don't want that, do you?" I laughed a little.

"No, I guess not." He nodded.

"That's right. Now, you wanna go back to the hotel or do you wanna hang out here for a while?"

"Can we just sit here for a little while?"

"Whatever you want, hotshot."

AN: Yeah, go Teddy. My Ted muse was in a good mood today. He wanted to be helpful. In fact, if you look over in that corner, you can see him setting traps for the plot bunnies. Hey Ted!

Ted: I was tired of you not posting anything, so I decided to lend a helping hand. So what if all the plot bunnies I'm catching for you involve me being the nicest guy ever?

Me: Ted, you're absolutely right. What would I do without you?

Randy: Um, I'd like to be the good guy again.

Me: I'm getting there Randy, just have a little patience.

Anyway, I'll see y'all later. Might post another chapter today if I can find the inspiration. We'll see. Ciao!