Chapter 27

The ride back to the hotel was silent except for the sound of Jenna whining about how she didn't want to go to sleep yet; she wanted to go back to the arena and play with her new friend, and favorite wrestler of all time (right now anyways), John Cena. "Jenna, for the last time, we are going back to the hotel and you are going to get your pajamas on and go to sleep. It's been a very long day," Punk said calmly as he watched his youngest in the rear view mirror. She had a sassy pout on her face that was telling her daddy that she might go to sleep eventually, but her parents were going to have to work at it.

"But, daddy, I don't want to go to sleep. I'm not tired," she said with a small yawn. Emma glanced over at Punk and saw a small smile on his face. He always seemed to know how to handle one of the kids when they didn't want to listen. It makes him a great father, Emma thought to herself as she watched her husband's profile in the darkened car. She felt the sting of tears in her eyes when she thought about how great of a husband he had been too—the Phil she knew was different from the Phil other people knew. They only knew Punk the wrestler; she knew Punk the man. "I want to stay up with you and mama….." Jenna trailed off with another yawn.

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Punk carried a sleeping Jenna through the hotel lobby and to the elevator with Emma trailing behind him. She hadn't said a word to him since earlier that night when Beth showed up and Emma had finally snapped and taken out her frustration on Beth. She knew that Beth wanted to be more than just friends with her husband—and the thought of her husband being touched by any other woman drove her insane. Now she knew how Punk had felt when he found about her and Scott. If I didn't feel like shit before, I sure do now, she thought to herself.

Scott. Scott. What the hell was she going to do about him? She had gotten sucked into his sweet words and his gentle kisses. He had been there with a friendly shoulder all those lonely nights that Punk was on the road. She had given into lust, desire and the promise of a more exciting life with him. He had promised that he would never leave her for days or weeks at a time like Punk did. He promised that he would always be there for her, whenever she needed. He said he wanted to be there for the kids too; especially since he told her that Jenna was actually his baby. He wanted to have more babies with her and raise them in a big happy home, instead of a lonely one like she had now. Maybe instead of listening to Scott's sweet talking, she should have just talked to her husband and let him know how she was feeling—alone. Punk would have done anything, anything, to keep Emma happy.

Scott still tried to call her every other day or sent her a text, begging her to talk to him. "We have so much to talk about, Em. I know things aren't going according to how we thought they would, but, baby…..I know you. I know you better than Punk does. I know you're bored; I know you're tired of being at home with the kids. Let me save you. Let me put some excitement back in to your life." Emma had been deleting the messages and ignoring the calls since the night that she found out that Scott had lied about him being Jenna's father. That would be all she needed right now—for Punk to find out that Scott had been calling her daily, begging her to come back to him. If her husband knew about that, all it was going to do was cause another huge fight between the newly reunited couple and eventually lead to their final demise.

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"Emma," Punk's voice broke through her solemn thoughts about Scott. She looked up and saw that he had his hands full with Jenna and was motioning her for to unlock the door. She had been so lost in her thoughts she hadn't even noticed that they had made it back to their room.

She unlocked the door and held the door open for him and he carried the sleeping child into their room. Very gently he laid her on one of the beds and took her little shoes off and covered her up with her Toy Story blanket. "Good night, Jenners," he whispered as he kissed her forehead and turned the lamp off on the side of that room. He turned and looked at Emma, who was still standing by the door. He held out his hand and motioned for her to follow him into the other room. He waited for her to go into the room before he halfway closed the door to the other room. Being a big star in the WWE was finally beginning to pay off—instead of the crappy one bed motel rooms that he usually got stuck in, he was provided with a five star suite.

He went over and sat down on the couch. Emma sat down in a recliner across from him. "We should talk, I guess," he began slowly, looking down at the floor. He didn't know what to say to Emma. All he wanted was for things to go back to the way they were before—before he was a huge star, before she started to feel lonely and turned to his best friend for comfort. He wanted his old Emmy Sue back—the one who laughed at his jokes, begged him to make love to her. He wanted the Emmy Sue back that loved being a mother and wife, the one who cried when he would go on the road. He wanted his girl back—he wanted the girl he fell in love with.

Emma nodded. "Yeah, we should….Do…you…." she sighed as she stuttered over her words. She took a deep breath and began again. "Would you like me and Jenna to fly back to Chicago tomorrow?" she finally blurted out.

He blinked his eyes and pretended to clean out his ear. Did he just hear her right? "Why would I want you to do that, Em? I've been begging you to come on the road with me for over a year now…..I finally got you to agree and now you want to go home right away? You've only been with me for a day…."

"I…I just thought that maybe after what had happened tonight, you changed your mind…." she said softly, refusing to meet his gaze.

"Change my mind about what?" he asked warily. He gave her a minute to answer; when she didn't say anything, he spoke up again. "Change my mind about what, Emma?"

Again, she was silent for a while before she finally lifted her sad blue eyes up to look at him. "About us….I thought…maybe you changed your mind about me and you…."

"Aw…Em…" he started to say, but the look on her face told him to stop talking and to let her finish.

"I fucked up, Phil. I really did. And it feels like," she let out a deep breath, "and it feels like this all a dream and I'm going to wake up all alone in our big bed, you're going to either be out on the road or across the city in your crappy apartment, and we're going to be fighting. Punk, something isn't right. It doesn't feel right that you forgave me this quickly. What I did was horrible—I not only broke your trust and broke our marriage vows, I put our three innocent kids through hell," she hurriedly wiped away at the tears that kept falling down her cheeks when she thought of how bad she had probably screwed up Josh and Jenna by kicking Punk out and then letting him back in; she didn't even want to begin to think about how bad Jack's relationship with Punk was going to be after what the boy saw.

"Our kids are all screwed up now," she continued as she kept wiping tears from her eyes. "Jack saw you and Scott fist fighting and saw you get hauled off to jail. He hasn't talked to you since that night. Josh is having meltdowns because he thinks that one day he's gonna wake up and you're going to be gone forever. Jenna is the same way—she doesn't want to let you out of her sight."

Punk scooted closer to Emma. "Em…things are going to be fine. Once things settle down and the kids see that we're fine, they'll calm down."

"What about Scott?" he stiffened up at the sound of his former best friend's name. "They're going to be confused when they don't see him coming around anymore. They adore him."

"I don't know what to do about him. Obviously things can't be like they used to be; something has to change. But you're right, Emmy. For some reason, those three simply adore that big nerd, and I know he really cares for the kids too. I….I don't know what we're gonna do, Em…." he said softly as he moved his arm so she could settle in closer to him. "All I know, is that I love you, you love me, and….we'll make it," he murmured as he kissed the top of her head. They had to make it. They just had to.