Chapter 24: Have a Little Faith in Me
Ashley woke up the next morning, she opened her eyes and looked in John's direction. He was still sound asleep but he wasn't alone Phinnigan had somehow crawled into bed with them, he was holding onto John's shirt while his head rested against John's shoulder. She carefully got up hoping that she wouldn't wake either of them up. She decided to make pancakes for John and Phinnigan but John had no food in his house at all. Rolling her eyes and muttering things under her breath she grabbed some clothes and headed to the store.
John woke up sometime later. He smiled as he gazed over to the spot where Ashley had last been. His smiled turned into a frown when he saw she wasn't there. Phinnigan was just waking up.
"Morning buddy" John said giving his son a kiss "you really need to stop getting out of bed in the middle of the night to sleep with daddy"
Phinnigan just looked at him and gave him a little smile. He still had his binky in his mouth.
"It's morning so hand nummi over" John said holding out his hand.
"My nummi" he said.
"Give it to me"
Phinnigan finally relented and handed over his binky over to his father, although he wasn't very happy about it. John had been cutting down time Phinnigan could have his binky because the dentists had told him that too much time with a binky could hurt Phinnigan's teeth. John got up and picked the toddler up as well.
"Did you see who was here to see you yet?" John asked.
"No" Phinnigan shook his head.
"Well let's see if we can find our house guest" John and Phinnigan left the bedroom and went to search the house.
After searching every room and still not finding Ashley he was beginning to think that maybe he had dreamed that Ashley had been there. The front door opened and Ashley appeared holding an arm full of groceries.
"Good you are awake help me bring stuff in" she said placing the bags on the counter "I woke up this morning with the intentions of making you guys breakfast but you have no food so I borrowed the charger"
"You drove the charger?" John asked a little afraid of what they state of his car would be like when he went outside … he wasn't a big fan of other people driving his cars.
"Relax unlike you whose insurance is probably through the roof I am a very responsible driver"
"Me and the insurance company are on good terms at the moment" John insisted.
"Key words … at the moment"
"Mommy uppie" Phinnigan held out his arms for him mother to pick him up.
"Hey my baby" Ashley kissed her son's cheek "mommy got all your favorite foods while she was at the store"
"Hey what about me?" John asked.
"Yes I got some stuff for you too"
"Sweet" John left to collect the rest of the shopping bags.
"Your daddy is an idiot" Ashley told Phinnigan.
After everything was put away Ashley made everyone chocolate chip pancakes and eggs. Ashley watched as John and Phinnigan ate, she was shocked it seemed like neither of them seemed to have eaten a home cooked meal in a while. They both were shoveling food into their mouths.
"Slow down both of you" she scolded them.
"Sorry" John said with a mouth full of food.
"Oh that was attractive ... you sure must hit it off with the ladies" she rolled her eyes.
"Hey once upon a time I won you over" he pointed out.
"I have no idea what I was thinking back then" she kidded him.
"Ha frickin ha"
Phinnigan stared from his mother to his father. He seemed a little overwhelmed to see them both in the same room talking. Ashley seemed to notice his distress, she took him out of his highchair and sat him in her lap.
"Did you enjoy your breakfast baby?" she asked him.
"Yes" he replied.
"He's really starting to talk up a storm" John said "sometimes it's hard to get him to stop"
"That's really good I was kinda nervous that he would freak out about being moved around again ... you know being here with you alone"
"The first few nights were rough, he looked everywhere for you but after time he seemed to get used to it"
"Well he never has to worry about being away from his mommy ever again" she vowed kissing the top of his head.
"Eww" he swiped his hand over his head.
"What mommy can't kiss you anymore"
"No" he replied crinkling his nose in disgust.
"But mommy is going to cry if she can't kiss her baby anymore" she rubbed her eyes in a pathetic attempt to make Phinnigan think she was crying.
"Hey Phin come here" John beckoned his son over.
Phin hopped off his mother' lap and made his way over to John.
"Come closer daddy wants to tell you a secret" Phinnigan inched closer to his father. Phinnigan grinned as he took his sweet time going to see what his father wanted. John finally grabbed him when he was close enough and Phinnigan let out a squeal of delight. He was hoping that he and his father would get to play wrestle now, which had become one of his new favorite hobbies after napping and playing with his trucks of course. His pale green eyes shone with excitement. John leaned in close so he could whisper in Phinnigan's ear.
"Sometimes it's ok to let your mommy give you kisses buddy" he whispered "just don't tell anyone about it"
Phinnigan nodded and placed his hand over his mouth which meant to him that he wasn't about to tell anyone about the "fatherly wisdom" John had just given him.
"'restle" Phinnigan said.
"You wanna wrestle buddy?" John asked. Phinnigan nodded and ran to his room to grab his toy championship belt.
"I have challenged that boy to about 5 rematches and he beats me every time ... he's the undisputed living room champion"
"That's my boy" Ashley replied amused.
"'restle daddy 'restle" Phinnigan commanded running back into the room with his toy WWE title belt slung over his shoulder.
"Ok one match but then I have to help mommy with the dishes" he said.
"Otay daddy one"
Ashley shook her head as she watched both of her "men" take off into the other room. She got up herself and stood in the doorway as Phinnigan nailed John in the chest with punches. John groaned and pretended like the hits were effective. Ashley couldn't help but laugh. John was pretending to be out on the ground when Phinnigan climbed up onto a nearby chair and delivered a perfect leg drop from it. Ashley stood there with her mouth open in shock. John didn't seem prepared for the impact because he suddenly sucked in air as the 2 year old landed directly in the middle of his chest. Phinnigan went for the pin so Ashley decided to act as the referee. She got down and counted ONE ... TWO ... THREE.
"Yay! I win" Phinnigan grabbed his title belt and began to jump up and down next to John who was still trying to recover from having the wind knocked out of him.
"You ok?" Ashley asked extending her hand to help him up.
"No" John wheezed taking her hand. She helped pull him back onto his feet.
"Where did he learn that?" she asked.
"I have no idea" John said, his voice was starting to return to normal.
"Hey Champ get over here" Phinnigan walked over to her and Ashley kneeled so she was his level "no more leg drops until you are at least 12"
"Otay mommy" Ashley playfully whacked Phinnigan on his butt.
Phinnigan grabbed some of his toys from the corner of the room and had a seat on the floor playing.
"Now Mr. Cena I believed you said you'd help me with the dishes"
Ashley pushed John towards the kitchen. She washed the dishes while John dried them.
"First thing Monday morning I am having someone come and look at that dishwasher" John declared "what good is the damn thing if we can't use it"
"I think it's fun doing the dishes the old fashioned way" she replied cheerfully.
"I'm sure you do" he rolled his eyes.
The phone rand and Ashley wiped her hands on her pants. She picked up the phone and hit the talk button before putting the phone to her ear.
"Cena residence ... Ashley speaking"
"Ashley you weren't the person I was expecting to talk to but this works too, this is Sister Agnes ... you remember me correct?"
"Yeah of course I do" Ashley replied nervous as to where this conversation could be going.
"Is John with you?" she asked.
"Yeah sure just let me put the phone on speaker" Ashley hit the speaker phone button and returned the phone to the cradle.
"I'm glad I got you both together" Sister Agnes said thankful she didn't have to try to track Ashley down.
"Yeah ... it's a temporary thing" Ashley said "so what can we do ya for?"
"Well I have some news" Sister Agnes began.
"Please do not tell us someone else is coming after Phinnigan" Ashley said with fear in her voice. John wrapped an arm around her.
"No, not at all don't worry Phinnigan is officially yours but this news does involve Phinnigan's family"
"Please don't tell me those two kids had another baby" John said.
"They requested that the child be placed with the same family as Phinnigan if that was possible"
John took his arm from around Ashley and began waving it in the arm in a disagreeing manner. Ashley raised an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms.
"No more kids" John mouthed.
"Can we call you back after we discuss this"
"Of course ... you have my number just let me know what you decide"
"No more kids!" John reiterated once she had completely hung up the phone.
"What's wrong with another kid?" Ashley asked.
"Double the mess, double the frustration ... double the dirty diapers"
"Double the kisses and hugs ... double the I love you daddy"
"No" John insisted "I'm not trying to be the bad guy but things are very strange right now and the last thing we need right now is another kid complicating everything" he rationalized.
"You grew up with 4 brothers correct and I had two ... now what if someone decided that you weren't going to be able to grow up with your brothers"
"Well the situation is different I'm not adopted and neither are my brothers"
"Well Phinnigan is adopted and now you just want to dismiss his little brother or sister ... why are we even having this conversation Randy is more than enough evidence that they trust single parents I just thought you'd want to do this together as a family"
"Oh hell no don't pull the family card" John snapped.
"Oh hell yes I'll fuckin pull the family card if I fuckin want to" she raised her voice a little "I'm the only one who seems to care".
"Oh ... I don't care huh well I have been busting my ass off trying to take care of that little boy in there while you were off in rehab ... but I don't care" he too raised his voice a little . Neither of them wanted to alert Phinnigan to the fighting.
"I needed to go into rehab so I didn't potentially hurt myself or Phinnigan and you didn't have to keep him this long, you could have given him to Randy or my dad ... you chose to keep him"
"It wasn't a choice I had to think about I love my son and I would do anything for him" John said.
"They need to be together John and if you don't want to do this then fine but I do and I'd like to think that you of all people knowing who I am and what I have been through would understand why I feel it is important for these two siblings to be together"
"This isn't an opportune time to be doing this ... we both have so much going on right now and I just don't think adding another child will be healthy"
"John I work from home ... besides how much more work can one more child be" she retorted with a hint of arrogance.
John rolled his eyes "Well call the woman up already we both know that no matter what I say you are going to do what you want anyways"
"Thank you John" she gave him a peck on the lips and a big hug "I promise nothing will change ... me and the kids will stay here till I find somewhere else and then we'll take it from there"
John frowned a little at the mention of her moving "Yeah, but mark my words you have no idea what you are getting into"
Ashley called Sister Agnes back and told her that they would be more than willing to accept Phinnigan's younger sibling into their "family". She also made the older woman promise not to reveal the gender of the baby until they reached the orphanage. She also wanted to set up a meeting with the birth parents to give them a little lecture on the use of birth control or just not having sex in general. Then she called Courtney and informed her that she was calling a "family" meeting. The original immediate family consisted of Ashley, John, Phinnigan, Randy and Dean. But Randy had added Courtney and for a while Ashley had added Shane but Shane was no longer in the picture so it would only be the "originals" and Courtney. Courtney lived around the corner from John's Tampa residence and that is how she and Randy had met. She was a newspaper photographer who Randy helped get a job with the WWE. Both Courtney and Randy happened to be at her home and agreed to be right over. Ashley and John wanted to get their opinions on what they were about to do. John was hoping that they would agree with him and Ashley wanted them to agree with her. But neither could make them decide what was the right thing to do. It was the impartiality that would make or break this argument. Only time would tell who would be right.