Chapter 21

He wasn't sure how much more he could take. Already it was nearly 5am and hardly anyone that had chosen to stay at the hospital had gotten any sleep. A few of the guys managed to doze off and on, curled up on the increasingly uncomfortable couches and chairs of their waiting room. Stephanie had long ago tried to convince them all to head back to their hotels to rest but many stayed behind, momentarily pushing aside all thoughts of their post-Mania obligations the next day.

Punk had been going from the windows to the hallway and back again ever since Callie was taken into surgery. Given the current circumstances, he should be exhausted, both mentally and physically, but his nervous energy kept getting the best of him. They had all been anxiously awaiting news from the doctors about Callie's condition but no word so far. The athletes had been warned that the surgery could take several hours, if not longer. As long as Callie's body held out, the surgeons would continue their work. Punk wasn't sure how much longer he could hang around the waiting room without anything to do. He already felt like the walls were beginning to close in around him; the air becoming stale and suffocating.

Jeff had wandered off about an hour ago and hadn't been seen since. Initially, Punk was okay with that. The quiet had afforded him a reprieve from the chaos prevalent since Wade's appearance at Wrestlemania. It didn't take long, though, for him to realize that the din had been the only barrier between him and his thoughts. In the quiet, his worries, fears and questions voiced themselves with no care to their volume or detail. As he stood looking out of the very window John's gaze had fallen from earlier, he once again replayed all of the events that had caused his near depressive mania.

What stood out first and foremost in his memory was the look on Wade's face as he stood over Callie's limp body; that crooked smirk, the gleeful sparkle in his eye. Punk shuddered slightly at the memory. Wade knew exactly what he was doing and had set it up to where there was no way he wasn't going to get caught.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Punk finally had enough. He opened the door as quietly as he could and slipped out into the brightly lit hallway, looking to the left, the right and left again before deciding on a direction. He had no particular destination in mind but, right now, anywhere was better than that room.

At that very same moment, elsewhere in the hospital, Randy was doing some roaming of his own. John never rejoined them, even ater Callie was moved by the surgeons. While Randy was well aware of Cena's probable need for some space, it seemed odd that he hadn't at least checked in. Seeing as how he still had John's phone, he wasn't going to be able to find him that way and it seemed as if he'd searched the entire medical complex already. Surely, John wouldn't have left the building when there could be news about Callie at any time, would he?

Rounding several more corners, Orton spied his second favorite McMahon partially down the hall, conversing in hushed tones with a very frazzled looking personal assistant. Coming up on them, Randy took a moment from his own worries to feel sorry for the blonde woman. Her shaking hands and unsure tone broadcasted to everyone around her that she was in over her head. As she hastily wrote down some notes and hurried off to complete her tasks, Orton realized there were worse things than sitting and waiting. He could be having to deal with everything else.

"Hey Steph," he greeted when he had her attention. The billion dollar princess looked like she's been through the wringer as well.

"Hey! Ya'll okay? Any word yet?"

Randy shook his head, sorry to disappoint someone yet again. "No, she's still upstairs. Been looking for John though. You haven't seen him have you?"

"Unfortunately, I have." Randy didn't like the way that sounded and Stephanie let out a deep breath before going on. "He's in there right now," she continued, pointing to a door a few steps down the hallway. "Maybe he'll let you go in and talk to him."

"Let me? What happened?" Looking around, Orton took notice of a few details that had escaped him while he's been sympathizing with Steph's assistant. Like the four security guards busy comparing bruises and the upturned equipment cart lying below many large holes in the beige plaster of the walls.

"I don't know exactly." She answered. "He was in there for quite a while with the doctor from downstairs. Out of nowhere it sounded like a freight train was going through the building." Steph's eyes widened as she heard the sound once more in her memory. "He just lost it Randy. He trashed the room in there," she pointed towards the door that separated them from Cal's brother. "Then he stormed out here. They all tried to restrain him but, well, you know how freakishly strong John is." Randy mentally winced, remembering some of the more hellacious bumps and bruises he'd nursed at the hands of Cena in the ring. "They tried to sedate him but he wasn't having it. He went back in there and hasn't spoken to us since."

"Wait." Randy shook his head in confusion. "Why wouldn't they just let him go? He probably wanted to check on Cal or..."

"Randal." Stephanie's tone stopped him midsentence and as he looked down at her, fear still shined in her eyes. "He was going to find Wade."

...

The 24 hours after Wrestlemania were always a blur for the chairman and his company but this year was going to be the one that really tested his limits. Just one hour ago, with still no word from Callie's doctors, Vince made his hardest decision of the year. RAW would go on as scheduled, even if they were short some of their most popular superstars. If this had been any other episode, any other show, he could have easily pulled the taping in lieu of the replay of the HOF ceremony but this was the post-Mania RAW supershow and it couldn't be let go.

They'd managed to leave most of the show's script alone, adding or subtracting only as necessary to coincide with the previous night's events. Of course, a few scenes had to be written out altogether, such as John's appearance to bask in the glow of yet another title retention and Batista setting the groundwork for one final feud before leaving the company. All of the angles had been covered except for one. The elephant that stood in every room Vince entered; the taunting circus clown that danced behind his eyelids. How to explain to everyone what they saw?

An entire room full of WWE personnel from varying departments had agonized for hours over that very question. It was nearly impossible to write into the storyline without Wade there for a rivalry. Fans would be expecting some very severe retaliation from John but Wade would never again be allowed inside a WWE ring, or any other if Vince had his way...and he always got his way. The media coverage would dissolve any illusion of a plot line anyway.

After several soul-searching hours, and limited permission from John's family, he made the only call that he could. Vincent Kennedy McMahon was going to tell the truth.

...

After hearing about John's earlier breakdown, Randy wasn't quite sure what to expect when he slowly opened the door and peered around the room. Oddly, the damage wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, considering what Cena was capable of. Orton had envisioned torn walls, light fixtures hanging and broken windows; remnants of a man unchained. Instead, the room showed itself for what it was. A venting tool for someone who'd held in too much, who's emotion had exploded forth with no warning to the soul that was supposed to be in control of them. Chairs were overturned, pictures hung askew and three fist-sized holes stood out next to the door. The room had only been a starting point, though, and all of John's true aggression had been saved for another target.

John. He was in the far corner, leaning against the wall with his arms resting on his knees. His gaze never wandered from some imaginary spot across the carpet, even when Randy repeatedly uttered his name. Closing the door, he navigated the overturned furniture and slid down the wall to sit next to his friend. They remained in silence at first, Randal scrutinizing Cena's emotionless face and bloody knuckles. "Hey. You need something? Some bandages? Water?"

"Wade." He replied in a robotic tone.

Randy sighed for the millionth time that night. "John, you know you can't go see him," he tried to explain. "you're no help to Cal if you're in prison. That's where Barrett belongs. You'd never get near him anyway. The cops AND the McMahons are having him watched."

"He needs to be punished."

"John, look..."

"He raped her."

Randy was stunned into momentary silence at the confession. Of course, looking back, it should have been an obvious possibility but normal men's minds just shouldn't work that way. "Callie? Wade...he..."

"I know." John cut into Orton's stammering. "At first, I couldn't bring myself to say it either. When I tried," he waved his arm to gesture around the room. "This happened."

"They're absolutely sure?"

"Positive." John rubbed his eyes, hesitating before indulging any more information. When he did continue, his voice was shaky, cracking nearly every other word. "Who knows how many times but the doc...he said it was definitely more than a few. Probably the whole fucking time he had her." Tears slid down his cheeks once again as he tried not to envision his baby sister being violated in such a way. Randy, too, looked to be on the verge of tears, lowering his eyes out of a loss for anything to say. "So Wade kidnapped her, tortured her, starved her, drugged her and raped her. Then he drags her into the ring and tries to murder her in front of millions of people. He needs to die."

"He will John." Randy looked straight into Cena's blue orbs. "But first, he's going to have to live to regret what he's done."

So that's the end of that chapter folks! Let me know what you think and I'm always up for ideas on where this story should go! I want to know what you guys want to happen! I've also already planned out quite a few new twists and turns that these guys are going to have to go through (seriously, even I'm going to have trouble keeping up with some of these plot twists until the very end!) R&R please!