A/N: apologies for lack of updates; was really stuck on this story for a while. Read, review and enjoy.

Chapter 23

This had to be a dream, Punk thought to himself as he looked over at Emma. She was keeping Jenna entertained with a coloring book right now; this would be the little girl's first flight. He smiled a little as he watched his wife take care of Jenna's nervousness about flying with ease. She has always been so good with the kids, he thought to himself. The three of them—himself, Emma and Jenna—were sitting in the terminal of the airport waiting to board their flight. He couldn't believe it; she had actually agreed to travel with him for a few days. He had been begging her to come along for the ride since he had hit it big in the WWE. She always turned him down for some reason or another. Then she turned into a raging bitch and refused to be anywhere near him. But now she was scared to be away from him, as if something would suddenly come around that could tear their newly resurrected apart. He was never going to give up on her; no matter what happened.

He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair; everything was happening so fast. They were back together now, the divorce proceedings had been stopped and he was moving back in; everything was perfect. Except for one thing that he couldn't forget no matter how hard he tried. Emma had cheated on him; she had laid down for another man and let him touch her, make love to her, kiss her sweet lips, runs his hands through her long hair. And the worst part of it all? That other man just happened to be his best friend. He had started to forgive Emma, he had too, and he couldn't stand the thought of actually losing her. She swore up and down that it would never, ever happen again. He believed her. What about Scott thought? Punk couldn't even begin to think about how his relationship with his best friend could be salvaged. It probably couldn't he thought sadly to himself.

"Punk?" Emma asked quietly as she stood up and started gathering Jenna's coloring books and putting Jenna's jacket on her. "They just called our flight number. Are you ready to go?"

He nodded and picked up the rest of their carry-on luggage. They had to deal with mess eventually; but right now, he was just content to have his wife back on his side again, where she belonged.

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"But Grandma! It isn't fair that Jenna got to go with mom," Jack whined to his grandmother Monday morning while he finished up his breakfast. Once again, he and his brother Josh were stuck staying at their grandmother's house while their mom needed some 'alone time'. But only this time, she took Jenna with her and was with dad, and worst of all, they weren't coming back for almost a week!

"Not even sure why it matters to you, Jack. I thought you were mad at your father?" Evelyn asked as she finished packing Josh's backpack.

"I am," he said quietly while playing with his empty cereal bowl. He was still really mad at his dad; how could his dad, who claimed to love mom so much act like such an asshole towards her, and Uncle Scott, and then just expect everything to go back to the way they were before?

"Then, tell me Jack, why does it bother you that your mother went with your father?" Evelyn asked as she sat down next to Jack.

"I don't know.." he mumbled, refusing to meet the kind and understanding eyes of his grandmother. Grandma had always been there for him, always explaining things about his mom and dad when he didn't understand why they would fight the way they did. She had been a big help in helping him figure out what he was feeling when dad moved out.

"I think you do know," she replied gently as she started rubbing his back. This poor boy, she thought to herself. "You know you can tell grandma anything. Tell me what's bothering you?"

Jack hesitated for a few minutes before he finally blurted it out. "Dad doesn't deserve mom! She's so nice and pretty and dad is just what you said he was—a worthless asshole!" he said as his face turned bright red. He waited for his grandmother to yell at him for using a curse word.

More than anything, she wanted to agree with the boy; her son-in-law was a worthless asshole and she didn't much care for him; but then she remembered the way he would look at her daughter. Every woman in the world wishes and waits for a man to look at them with the same kind of adoration that Phil had for Emma. Evelyn had seen the way that her daughter looked at Phil the first time she brought him home. Emma had been smitten. "Your father loves your mother. And he loves you boys and Jenna. I would have thought that you would have been very happy that they are starting to work things out. I thought that's what you had wanted from the beginning—for your mom and dad to work things out. And that's what's happening right now."

"Then why did he say such mean things to mom, and why did he beat up Uncle Scott?" Jack asked; his hazel eyes flashing with annoyance and wanting answers. Unfortunately, these were answers that Evelyn couldn't give her grandson.

"Jack…adults sometimes have a strange way of showing each other how much they love one another. I know you're too young to understand; but you need to trust me. Your mom and dad getting back together, and your dad moving back in, will all make sense to you one day. Not anytime soon, mind you, but one day, you'll understand. Now, I believe you two young men need to get your backpacks on and get ready for school."

Apparently, this conversation was over for now.

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Over the years, Emma had met many of Punk's co-workers; but that didn't stop her from still feeling very nervous later that evening when she walked into the arena with him. Holding her hand, and carrying Jenna, the three of them made their way through the crowded backstage hallways of the arena. He could tell that several people were staring at him, trying to figure out who this beautiful woman next to him was, and why he was carrying a small child. Not a lot of people knew that he was married and had kids. They all thought he was just some sort of brooding asshole complete with tattoos and a bad attitude. They had no idea that he absolutely loved being a father and husband.

"Daddy! Look!" Jenna squealed with delight as they came around a corner and headed down the hallway that would take them to his locker-room. Punk looked to where his daughter was pointing and held back a groan. "Really, Jenners?" he mumbled under his breath as he looked over at Emma. He smiled a little when he saw that she was rolling her eyes at who Jenna was so excited to see.

"Daddy! Daddy! I want to go talk to him!" Jenna said quickly as she started to pester Punk to put her down.

"Just a minute, Jenna…." Just as he had put his daughter down, the object of her current fangirl status came over to them. "Well, well, well. Look who's here!" he said with a big grin as he held out his hand for a high five from his favorite three year old fan. "If it isn't Miss Jenna Brooks. How ya doing, kid?"

"Cena," Punk said quietly as he watched his daughter squeal with delight in coming face to face with her favorite wrestler, after her daddy of course.

"Punk….." John said quietly but then a big grin filled up his face when he saw that the lovely Emma Brooks was visiting today as well. "Hi, Emma…Long time no see," he said quietly as he wrapped an arm around Emma's narrow shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. She immediately stiffened up for two reasons. One, she knew this was making Punk jealous as hell and he was probably trying really hard not to start throwing punches in front of Jenna. Two, she didn't particularly care for John. She didn't like the way the company had been portraying him as the best in the company.

"John. Nice to see you again," she said quietly as she quickly moved away from John and immediately took Punk's hand. She could see the curious look in John's eyes as Punk looked down at her amused that she would cling to him the way she was right now. As long as John had known Punk, he had never seen his wife act like this; he had heard rumors lately that they had broken up for a while, but it looked like everything was fine right now.

"Are you ready, baby…." Punk said quietly in his wife's ear. Emma nodded and motioned for Jenna to come back to her mother. The little girl sadly said good-bye to her current favorite and took her father's hand as they headed back on their way to Punk's locker-room.

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After Emma got Jenna settled in with a Care Bears movie, she sat down on the small couch next to her husband. "Why did you let him do that?" he asked softly, trying hard to keep his emotions in check right now.

"Why did I let who do what?" she asked with an air of confusion in her tone. She honestly had no idea why Punk was asking her that.

"Let Cena put his hands on you," he replied bluntly.

Emma rolled her eyes. Along with many other personality quirks, over the years Emma has had to deal with Punk's sometimes insane jealousy when it came to other men being within ten feet of her. "Oh, stop. You know just as well as I do that I don't like him. In fact, I can't stand him just as much as you can't."

"Didn't seem that way when you let him put his big paws all over you," he replied once again in a stubborn voice.

"Drop it, Punk," she said softly as she took his hands in hers. "No one matters but you…."

"Except Scott," he spat at her and then immediately regretted it.

"Damn it," she mumbled as she moved away from him. "Why are you starting now? I thought we had gotten past that—" she started to say before he cut her off.

"You might think that we've gotten past that, Em. But I'm the one that has to live with the image of my former best friend with his sweaty hands all over you!"

"Keep your voice down," she hissed as she glanced over at Jenna. Thankfully the little girl was in a Care Bears induced trance and hadn't heard her parents start to fight. Again.

"I will not keep my voice down, Em. We still have a long ways to go before everything is back to normal. And I would appreciate it if you did your part by not letting my co-workers paw at you like you just let Cena did."

"You are fucking unbelievable, Phil. Just unbelievable—"

"Oh, here we go again. And 3..2..1.. BAM! Emma's back to being a bitch! What a surprise," he mumbled as he glared at her.

"You are unbelievable. Seriously. I thought we were making progress—"

"We were—"

"Let me finish a damn sentence, Phil!" she shouted at him. Emma was about to continue with what she was saying before she was interrupted by her husband, but a knock at the door, put a sudden end to their marital bickering. With a final sneer to his wife, Punk got off the couch and went to answer the door.

"We're not done talking about this, Emmy," he warned as he walked across the room and flung the door open. "What do you want," he growled at the person on the other side of the door.

Natalya rolled her eyes; she was used to Punk's normal aggressive behavior. "Nothing, it's just that we can all hear you and your wife fighting, and someone had mentioned that one of your kids was with tonight."

"What's your point, Natalya," Punk growled at her. He was starting to get more upset than he already was right now.

"Shit, Punk. Calm down. I'm just stopping by to see if you wanted me, or one of the other girls, to take the kid for an hour or so, so you and your wife can talk—"

"Thanks but no thanks. And you can tell everyone else," Punk moved her aside as he shouted down the hall. "That I can take care of my own kid and my wife. So just go about and mind your own business!" He sneered at Natalya one more time before he slammed the door in her face.

"That didn't go very well did it," voice said gently behind Natalya. She let out a dry chuckle and turned to face John.

"No it didn't. I was just trying to be helpful…..How long have Punk and his wife been married?"

"Hmm…I don't know, I think nine years maybe? Don't know. He doesn't really talk about her," John replied as he put his arm around her shoulders and led her back down the hall to catering. "He's a pretty private person, and from what I had heard, I thought he was in the middle of a divorce."

"Well. From what I heard from Beth," Natalya replied with a twinkle in her eyes at getting a chance to share some gossip, "they had been separated for like six months and then the divorce was going to be final but then she changed her mind and said she wanted him back."

"It's not nice to gossip, Nat," John said gently. "But I'm with you. I don't see how she puts up with him. What else did Beth have to say about them?" John asked, not really eager to join in the gossip mill right now, but he didn't really have anything to do until later tonight. Might as well kill some time with some good old fashioned locker-room gossip.

"Oh, not much. Just that out of the blue Emma had demanded a divorce and had almost got it, along with a huge alimony and child support package, but then she let it slip that their youngest isn't really his kid."

"Really? The one they have with them tonight?" John asked with a newly found interest.

"Yeah, apparently she had been sleeping around with someone while he was out on the road. I can't think of his real name, but when he wrestles he goes by Colt?"

"Colt Cabana?" John let out a laugh. "That guy is almost as weird and awkward as Punk is. What did she see in him?"

Natalya shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I only know what Beth told me."

They walked in silence for a few seconds before John spoke again. "Didn't Beth used to have a thing for him?"

"Who, Colt?"

"No, no…..Punk?"

"Used to? Oh, honey. She is still obsessed with that man. I doubt she'll ever give up on him." Well, that's the impression Natalya got anytime Beth steered the conversation towards wanting what she couldn't have. Normally she just brushed off what Beth said as just talk. But lately….lately something was feeling "off" about Beth. She had just hoped that her friend wouldn't go after Punk like she went after everything else in life—with determination.