AN: Alright, here we are. Next chapter. We borrow Edge and Christian's time machine and hop forward just to spice up the mystery. No worries, I don't think we'll need the time machine until we finish the story of what actually happened over the summer. Read on!

(Jessie)

After the fiasco on Sunday, Randy decided that we would all be safer if either Cody or Ted stayed with me while we were in the arena the next day. It was official; Dave would go onstage that night and announce his resignation. And then, we'd all be able to breathe easy. But until then, I was still stuck with a baby sitter under strict orders that NOBODY was to leave my side unless Randy or John himself physically walked over and told us so. And that was all fine and dandy, until I managed to activate that amazing ability to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Cody and I were walking to catering from his locker room when some creative guy pulled him to the side.

"Stay right here," Cody said, placing me firmly on an equipment case. "I'm going to be right over there for like, ten seconds," he said forcefully, pointing to a corner. "You won't even be out of my sight, so don't spontaneously combust. Got it?"

"Roger that, Master Chief. Go finish your business." He laughed and walked into the corner not 15 feet away. I sat looking around, still star struck after all these weeks. Watching the crew do their business was one of the funnest things I got to do on that whole trip. Don't ask why, it just was.

Anyway, everything was fine, right until an angry "YOU!" echoed across the whole backstage area. I looked up, and there he was again. My personal worst nightmare. Dave approached me, taking long, fast strides. "This is YOUR fault!" he roared. "If you had never been here, I would STILL HAVE MY JOB!" He was 10 steps away now.

Time seemed to slow down.

9 steps.

I hopped down off the case, standing my ground.

8 steps.

I was resisting the urge to tell him to bring it on.

7 steps.

Cody was yelling in the background.

6 steps.

I couldn't resist anymore, and spread my arms with a cocky "Come on!"

5 steps.

Someone stepped in between us.

Everyone backstage stopped in their tracks, even Dave. We were all quiet for a moment. It was like a standoff in an old western, accented by the mystery man's cowboy hat.

"Now, Dave," he said, quietly but firmly. "From what I heard, we've already established that hurtin' this young lady is a bad idea. Hurting her now won't change the things you've already done." Dave was silent, and then turned around without another word. He shook off the security guy that grabbed his arm and exited the arena of his own accord. A collective sigh of relief was breathed among those of us backstage, and I finally turned my attention back to my savior. He turned around…

I think I might have died a little inside in that moment.

"Are you alright, ma'am?"

"You're Shawn Michaels," I said in awe. He chuckled a little.

"Yeah," he said. "And you're Jessie." I turned to Cody, who had appeared beside me. I tugged on his sleeve.

"Cody. Shawn Michaels knows my name."

"Are you ok?" he asked. "Dave looked like he was on something."

"I don't care. That's Shawn Michaels." Paul walked over out of somewhere and laughed at my dumbfoundedness.

"Is she always like that?" Shawn asked with a smile.

"Only for like, the first couple seconds she knows you. It gets better, I promise."

True to Paul's word, I chilled out after a few minutes basking in my hero's glory. We went to Vince's impromptu office he had set up for himself that night and hung out. It wasn't long until Randy invaded the office, raising heck.

"AGAIN? Really? How is it possible that he was anywhere around her again?"

"Bad luck?" I said, trying to be helpful. Randy sighed and popped a squat next to me on the couch I was sitting on. Shawn chuckled.

"I don't know what your plan to get out of that one was, but you looked like you were ready to take him on." I grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah, well I didn't really know what to do. I figured if he actually DID something, Cody was right there to stop him. I'd rather go down fightin' then turning tail and runnin'." Shawn nodded.

"A good philosophy."

"One that gives me gas," Randy muttered.

"Aw, chill out, DAD," Paul said. "She's brave. That's a good thing." I was practically glowing with pride. Randy looked over at me and musta saw the look on my face. He gave me a half smile and put an arm around my shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess so." He ruffled my hair, and I laughed and tried to wiggle away.

"C'mon, kids," Shawn said, getting up. "Lemme treat you to dinner."

(Present)

I looked out the window of my youth minister's house. It had already gotten dark. I looked at the time on my phone. We must have been there for two hours talking about my summer.

"Andrew," I said quietly. "I really don't want to talk anymore." He looked around, too.

"Yeah. I guess you've told me enough." I was desperately trying to convey the fact that talking about this was difficult. "Look, I'm uh, going to go fix dinner. You can stay in the guest room. Make yourself at home. But, go check in the backyard. There's somebody who's been waiting to see you." Bummed out, I went outside to figure out what he was talking about, and then was super surprised to see none other than my dog, Rupert, waiting for me.

"Rupert!" My big Catahoula dog was running around in the back. He ran at me and we had a happy girl-and-her-dog reunion. "Well, at least SOMEBODY missed me," I said. "Can I bring him in?" I called to my guardian.

"Knock yourself out." I led him by the collar into the guest bedroom and he jumped on the bed. We just laid there for a while. I had missed him, and he was helping me to NOT think about everything that I had just lost in a matter of a few hours.

Twenty minutes later, my phone went off.

'Dinner's ready', the text message read. I groaned angrily.

"You could at least have the decency to actually TALK TO ME!" I yelled. Moments later, the phone started to ring. I rolled my eyes and answered. "This is NOT what I meant and you know it."

"Well geez, what did I do?" My jaw dropped as the light southern drawl came out of the other end of the line.

"Teddy?" I asked. I was almost in tears. "You called!"

"Well, I told you I would, Hotshot," he replied gently.

"Yeah, I know, but…"

"I understand." He paused for a moment. "Nobody wanted to let you down."

"Yeah, I know, but… I just wish I understood. I feel like it was my fault."

"No, no no no no no. Whatever it is, it's not your fault. I promise, as soon as I pry the information from him, you'll be the first to know." I smiled.

"Ted, you're the best brother a Jessie could ask for." I could practically hear his smile on the other end.

"Yeah, I know. What- Cody!"

"Cody's there?" I asked.

"Yeah. The dork wants to talk to you. Here, I'll put you on speaker."

"Cody!"

"Look, I thought I told you to wait until I got here to leave. Didn't I?"

"That you did, Codes," I admitted.

"So, I'm gonna buy you an Xbox and send it down to you, alright? And you have to name it something good that goes with Sven. Cuz they'll be like brothers or something." I laughed.

"How can you tell if it's a boy or a girl?"
"Because you just can, ok?"

"He's drinking a Rockstar, in case you were wondering," Ted informed me.

"HALO!" The three of us just started laughing over the line. Andrew knocked on the door.

"Dinner's ready."

"Not hungry." He sighed.

"I'll be out here if you need me."

"Who's that?" Ted asked.

"The youth minister," I explained.

"Is he being nice?" Cody asked. "'Cause I'll take him out."

"Yeah, I'm sure he'd be REAL scared of your chicken legs, Codes. Do us all a favor and put on some kneepads." We chuckled, but then I sighed. "He's fine, I'm just bein' a brat. I'm a little on edge after all that. I didn't see it coming."

"I don't even think Randy did," Ted said honestly. "I don't know what his reasoning was, but you can bet that whatever it was, he was thinking of you first."

We spent a while longer talking about nothing. I think they knew that's what I needed. I told them all about Rupert, who promptly fell asleep moments after I got on the phone. An hour later, I just wanted to sleep.

"I'm going to bed, guys."

"Night!" Cody said.

"Hey, Ted, Cody?"

"Yeah?" they both said.

"Thanks, guys."

"Anytime, Jess. You know we're here for you," Ted said.

"Yeah, what he said," Cody piped in.

"Bye, Jess."

"Bye, guys."

(Randy)

We drove for hours and made it to our hotel somewhere in Mississippi. I had been running through everything that had happened over the past couple of months and suddenly wondered if Jess had been doing the same thing. My phone suddenly started ringing.

"Orton," I answered.

"It's Ted." He sounded pissed off.

"What's wrong?"

"I just got off the phone with Jess." I was silent. "I think maybe you oughta call her."

"She doesn't want to talk to me." He laughed out loud in disbelief.

"Randy, she practically idolized you the whole summer. If she sounds mad, she doesn't mean it. She thinks SHE did something wrong. At least EXPLAIN to her why." I sighed.

"Alright. I'll call her tomorrow."

"Promise?" Cody asked from the background.

"Yes, I promise I'll call tomorrow."

"Randy?"

"Yeah, Ted?"

"I swear I'll hurt you if you don't. You're not the only one who cares."

(Jess)

I tried to sleep, I really did. But every time I started dozing off, I started thinking about everything, and it woke me up again. It was the worst feeling in the world, to know that you had had everything you ever wanted only to have it taken away from you. And even worse than that was the knowledge you'd never get it back again.

I must have stayed awake for hours crying that night, and about at one the next morning, I decided that maybe if I just bit the bullet and faced down all my happy memories, the pain would start to fade.