Title: Ride Of Your Life
Author: Adrian Jade
Summary: One day you wake up and realize that everything you thought mattered to you doesn't. John Cena has a girlfriend who he thinks he loves and a best friend who he knows he will always love. What happens when on a random pit stop to a Walmart they find something that could change all of their lives. John needs to choose where his heart belongs.
Disclaimer: I own all the people that you don't recognize. Everyone else own themselves and their characters belong to the WWE.
(A/N: Just a heads up to ease the confusion for the readers because both John and his dad are both in this chapter I will be referring to John's dad mostly as just Sr. Just thought I would let everyone know that)
"So you and John are going to go visit his parents" Isa said flopping down on Ashley's bed.
"Yep" Ashley said trying to pack.
"So how do you feel about this?" Isa asked.
"About what?" Ashley asked.
"Duh! Going to see John's parents" Isa rolled her eyes.
"It doesn't bother me … I already know how it is going to go down"
"Oh really so what is going to happen?"
"We are going to get there and it is going to be awkward at first because John's parents can barely be in the same room with each other for more than 5 seconds and then we'll tell them and it will take a moment to process but then Carol will cry because she is finally getting the grandchild she has always wanted, and John Sr. will pat John on the back and say he's proud of him or something along those lines and then they'll ask if we are together and we'll have to tell them no and they will be disappointed but they will get over it and want to hold Phinnigan" she looked over at Isa and could see that she had her complete attention "then Carol will tell me later in private that she secretly hopes that John comes to his senses and breaks up with Kelly and that we get back together"
"Wow … I wish I could go with you guys to see how much of your theory is true"
"Trust me that is how it'll go down"
"Men entering the room if either of you are naked that is perfectly fine with me" John announced walking into the room with Phinnigan.
"You are disgusting" Isa remarked.
"Sticks and stones love"
"John make yourself useful and bring my bags to the car"
"Does it say Ashley's bitch across my forehead" John replied.
"Damn I was hoping you would never find out about that" Ashley remarked sarcastically.
"Fine whatever" John said handing Phinnigan to Ashley.
He grabbed Ashley's bags and left the room with them.
"You know eventually John is going to get tired of waiting … you can only keep him around for so long before he finds something else"
"Isa don't start" Ashley warned her.
"I'm just saying he won't be around forever"
"Jesus Christ! Why is everyone on me about getting with John" Ashley exclaimed "when I want to tell John that I want to be with him again I will"
"So you admit you want to get back together with John"
"Stop twisting my words around to suit your evil purposes" Ashley retorted.
"What about Isa and her evil purposes?" John asked walking back into the room.
"Nothing!" Ashley snapped.
John knew immediately that they were talking about him. He frowned a little at the two women.
"Well we aren't getting any younger so let's go" Ashley announced walking out of the room with baby Phinnigan.
John and Isa shared a look. No words were needed they both knew where each other stood. Isa shrugged and gave John a shy smile.
"She'll come around" was all Isa could say to comfort him.
"Yeah sure" John said disappointedly as he shook his head a little.
John walked out of the room with his head hanging low. He didn't want to put his heart out there only for Ashley to crush it again. He couldn't take rejection for a second time. He got in the car and pulled out of the driveway.
"You wanna talk about what you and Isa were discussing that got you so on edge?" John asked.
"It's nothing more that Isa trying to control my life"
"She only wants what is best for you" John reasoned.
"Yeah well she's been doing it for as long as I could remember … doesn't she know I'm a grown woman and can take care of myself"
"Sometimes my dear I think you forget that there are people here who care about you and only want to see you happy"
"Yeah well I'd be happy if people left me alone" she began fooling around with the radio.
John once again shook his head sometimes he had no idea why he bothered even trying to talk to Ashley because she usually only hear what she wanted to hear. She was still playing around with the radio when she got fed up and put in one of her cds in. Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne began to play. John grinned a little because he secretly believed that the song was describing how Ashley felt about his relationship with Kelly.
About half way into the trip Ashley fell asleep and John couldn't help but steal a glance at her every few seconds. He turned Ashley's cd off and flipped through her little cd book until he came across Bon Jovi's Crush album, he decided to listen to that. It's My Life began to play and John turned up the volume a little and began to jam. Ashley woke up and looked over at John. He was bobbing his head a little to the music and acting like a total goofball. She closed her eyes again but there was a smile plastered to her face. While she sat there with her eyes closed she thought about what Isa had said, she knew Isa was right of course she couldn't let John wait around forever but she wasn't sure she wanted to go back down that road. Although she did love John she was so afraid of what would happen if things didn't work out between them. She was afraid not to have John in her life and if they were to date again and something catastrophic happened and they parted on bad terms how could she live not having her best friend anymore. Although she knew that John would never intentionally hurt her and she would never go out of her way to hurt him the thought of loosing him was enough not to make her act upon the feelings she did have buried deep down for him. She fell asleep once again thinking about everything. The next thing she could remember is being gently shaken awake.
"What's going on?" she asked drowsily.
"We're here Sleeping Beauty so you need to wake up" John smiled at her.
"Leave me alone" she grumbled and closed her eyes once again.
He shook his head but continued smiling as he gently snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her out of the car. She opened her eyes to glare at him but even that didn't seem to faze him.
"Ok I'm awake you can put me on the ground now" she said annoyed.
"Ok" he said letting go of her.
She screamed because she thought she was going to fall but was incredibly relieved when he caught her again.
"Don't do that" she punched him in the shoulder.
"Now do you really think I would let you fall?" he asked.
"I never know with you" she retorted as he placed her safely on the ground.
John's father, who had heard someone scream came out to investigate and was very pleased to see his second oldest son and Ashley, whom he would always consider to be a daughter to him.
"Hey you two" he greeted both of them with a hug.
"Hey Old Man, how about you helping me with the bags" John suggested.
"Is Carol here yet?" Ashley asked the Elder Cena.
"Nope not yet" John Sr. replied.
Ashley went to the backseat and grabbed Phinnigan's carrier. John Sr. cocked an eyebrow at the baby.
"Dad I think we should leave the bags for now and we can all go inside and everything will be explained" John said.
"Yeah ok" John Sr. said in a total state of confusion.
Just as they were about to go inside Carol Cena pulled her car into the long dirt driveway and got out of her car.
"What was so important that I had to rush right over here?" she said looking from one person to another.
"Well at least we only have to explain this once" Ashley whispered to John.
"What's with the baby?" Carol asked.
"Like I said before lets head inside and talk about it somewhere there are seats around just in case someone feels light headed" John said.
Both Ashley and John entered the house but Carol and John Sr lagged behind for a few seconds.
"Do you have any idea what is going on?" Carol asked him.
"No, I was about to ask you the same question" he answered.
"Should we be worried?" she asked.
"With these two probably"
"Ok you two explain" John Sr said once all the adults were seated.
Phinnigan was resting comfortably in John's arms now and he was more than content just looking around at everything around him.
"Well guys you see … well there really is no easy way to explain this …"
"Jesus! John you make it sound like we killed someone" Ashley said "what John means to say is that we adopted a baby"
"I'm sorry I must have misheard you because I could have sworn I heard you just say that you and my son adopted a baby" John Sr said.
"Nope you heard me correctly" Ashley said shrugging.
"What the hell would posses you two to adopt a baby?" Sr asked.
"Well you see we found him in of all places a Walmart Parking lot and when I found out that they were going to be placing him in an orphanage I knew that we needed to do something so I convinced John to help me adopt him"
"That still doesn't explain why you would want to adopt a baby" Carol said.
"Ash, you don't have to go into details if you don't want to" John said taking her hand in his.
"It's ok your parents are like my parents too and they should know" Ashley said "I was beaten repeatedly as a teen and because of it I can never have any children of my own"
"Who beat you?" Sr. asked.
"After my mother died my father went off the deep end with grief and couldn't even look at us so he put me and my two brothers into foster care and unfortunately it wasn't a very good home and my foster parents beat me every chance they got but I made sure they never touched my brothers. Apparently being punched in the stomach repeatedly caused there to be so much scarring to my uterus the chances of me carrying a child at all let alone to term are slim to none" she explained "so when I found out the baby was being placed into an orphanage I panicked and ended up telling John my story and he agreed to help me out"
"Telling me her story helped Ashley realize that even though she would probably never have her own children she could still be someone's mom" John added.
"So guys I think it's time you officially met your grandson Phinnigan William Joshua Cena"
"So you guys are serious about this … this isn't some kind of cruel practical joke?" Sr. asked.
"We are serious as a heart attack" John responded.
"So who wants to hold their grandchild first?" Ashley asked excitedly.
After about 3 hours of being passed around from one adult to another Phinnigan began to get cranky and was put down for his nap. Ashley and Carol had gone out to pick up something for dinner leaving the men in charge of the baby.
"You know sometimes I still can't believe I'm his dad" John said peering down at his son while he slept.
"You and me both son" Sr. said "but in all seriousness I am really proud of you, it takes a lot to be someone's parent, but I still don't really understand why you agreed to help Ashley you have never shown any interest in children what so ever"
"That's simple dad I love her and all I want is to see her happy and she wanted a baby so I helped her get one"
"If you love her so much why are you still with Kelly?" Sr. asked.
"That's the question of the hour dad I'm not sure" John replied.
"Hey guys we are back with the food" Ashley yelled from down stairs.
John and his dad left Phinnigan to sleep and all the adults sat down to what actually turned out to be a very civilized dinner.
"Ok Ashley and John seeing as this will probably be the last time in quite a while I think you two should go out on the town and enjoy yourselves" Carol said.
"Ma, you're joking right?" John gave her a look.
"Just go ahead me and your father can watch Phin for you while you are gone"
"That's sweet of you guys really but we couldn't" Ashley said.
"Besides what happened to you guys not even wanting to be in the same room and now that I think of it where are my brothers?" John asked finally noticing that his younger brothers were nowhere to be found.
"Sean wanted to go camping so he dragged the other two along" Sr remarked with a laugh.
Ashley almost chocked on the water she had been drinking when she heard Sean wanted to go camping. It was a very amusing thought for all that knew Sean.
"We really do insist you guy go ahead and have a good time that way we can spend more time with our grandson" Carol said.
"It's up to Ash" John said.
Ashley thought about it for a moment and then agreed "One night out won't kill me".
Although she was still kind of nervous leaving her newborn son she knew that John's parents would take good care of him while they were gone. So both Ashley and John disappeared to get dressed and were ready about an hour later.
John found Ashley gazing down at Phinnigan. A smile spread over his face as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Little guy is knocked out" he said.
"Yeah and you know what I could just stand here and watch him sleep for the rest of my life"
"Do you not want to go out tonight because if you are going to feel funny about leaving him then we can stay here"
"No, it's fine we can go out and enjoy ourselves tonight ... I just can't help but wondering what scheme your parents are up to"
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Ok how old is your brother Steve's daughter?"
"Atiana is 4" John replied.
"Have you ever heard your parents jumping to babysit your niece as fast as they offered with Phinnigan?" Ashley pointed out.
"Well no ..."
"Exactly those two have something up their sleeves"
"Now that you mention it they seemed way too civil to each other earlier and now that I stop and think about it that seems kinda creepy"
"Yeah just a little bit" Ashley agreed.
"Well anyways lets save my parents motives for the morning and enjoy our baby free night because god knows we probably won't have another one for a while"
Ashley forced herself to smile at him because she knew deep down that it would be her staying home with Phinnigan not him. Although she did want to give John the benefit of the doubt because for a man who has stated more than once that children weren't for him he seemed to genuinely care for baby Phin. She kissed Phinnigan's forehead and took John's outstretched hand and let him lead her out of the room.
"Have fun you two" Carol waved them off from the door way.
"We we've done our part now they have to do the rest" she said to her ex-husband "hopefully sooner rather than later Kelly will be out of the picture"
Both adults decided to head into Boston and take in the excitement of Newbury Street. Most of Newbury Street consisted of high end shops but at the very end of the strip there were a few dance clubs and restaurants.
"So my dear should we take in a club?" John asked.
"Why yes darling I believe we should" she agreed.
John laughed "We are such freaks"
"But we are lovable freaks"
"So I'm allowing you to use your one time check up phone call now" John said.
"If you think I am only going to check up on Phinnigan once tonight you are crazy" Ashley said walking away from him into the closest club.
John once again grinned and shook his head before fallowing her into the club. True to her word Ashley called John Sr and Carol on the hour every hour till the point where they unplugged the phone so she would stop calling. John would never admit this to Ashley but he himself called about 8 times to check up on the baby.
"You ok?" John asked.
"Are we bad parents leaving our 4 day old son at home with your parents so we can have fun and drink?" Ashley asked.
"No, Ash we are not bad parents Phinnigan is perfectly safe and sound with my parents and remember they offered"
"But he's a newborn baby John ... he needs so much care even for lets say a couple of hours he is going to need to be changed about 4 or 5 times and he needs to be fed every 2 to 3 hours"
"My parents raised 5 sons and a grandchild so I'm pretty sure they know what they are doing so stop worrying"
"Do you ever worry about anything?" she asked him.
"Yes I do but I never let other people know it" he replied.
"Now relax and enjoy the free drinks the lovely bartender keeps bringing us" John raised his shot glass a little to the bartender who just happened to be looking in their direction.
"Oh yes the perks of being a WWE superstar you get to consume more booze" she rolled her eyes "from now on I'm calling you Luke"
"Whatever you say Laura" he retorted giving her a smirk.
"That's just plain creepy that you got my reference"
"My mom watches GH" he said taking another shot.
"Dude you are boring" John whined about an hour later.
"What makes you say that?" Ashley asked.
"You've had like a beer and a shot since we've been here ... what happened to the girl who used to have shot competitions with me?"
"I don't feel like it tonight" she said.
"Yeah you are afraid that I'll beat you again" John taunted her.
"I am not you half drunk bastard" she countered.
"I think you are"
"Believe me I'm not" she said.
"Then prove it" he dared her.
"Ok buddy you are on"
A taxi brought both Ashley and John back to John's childhood home that night. They were both drunk off their asses and currently making out in the backseat of the cab.
"Ok you two get out of cab and into a room where people don't have to see you practically getting it on"
Ashley stumbled out of the cab first and then John followed throwing some money at the cab driver as he got out. John scooped Ashley up into his arms and carried her to the front porch. He then began fumbling with his keys.
"I can't get the key in the lock" John said hysterically laughing.
Ashley began laughing too and somehow they managed to get into the house. Everything was in darkness so they knew everyone was asleep.
"We need to get upstairs quietly" Ashley said to John.
"Ok baby anything you say" John said already beginning to undress his best friend with his eyes.
Although she knew it was wrong her whole body was sent into shivers when he called her baby. She looked over at John to see that he had already removed the shirt he had been wearing. So now he was standing before her only clad in a pair of dark blue jeans. She walked over to his and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him into a very deep kiss. John didn't have to be told twice he picked her up and as quietly as two very drunken people could the made it to their room and spent the night in each other's arms.