Chapter 75:
"Candy, I just want to know if he's okay? That's it." Haley sighed in exasperation. "He was such a bloody mess after that match."
Candice, who had been in the process of cooking lunch for herself, Haley and Dwayne, looked at her best friend in annoyance. "He's fine! He got a couple of stitches and has been cleared to complete. Not that you should care considering what he did to you."
Haley lifted her eyebrows. "You know I can't just shut my feelings off, Candice. I worry, even when I shouldn't."
"I know," The Candy-coated Diva relented. "I'm sorry, Haley, I'm not mad at you. I'm just annoyed, with Dwayne. He's been spending all of his time hanging out with Randy these days that I feel nonexistent. I try talking to him about it and he assures me that I'm upset over nothing. Love sucks."
"Ain't that the truth." Haley chuckled.
Candice shot her friend a look of surprise. "Did you just make a joke?"
"Yes, I used to do that a lot." Haley reminded her with a grin.
"You haven't lately." Candice pointed out. "It's nice to see."
Haley stood up from the kitchen table and moved to hug Candice briefly. "I know I've been doom and gloom central lately, I'm sorry for that. But I'm working on it, I promise. I need to be the old me again."
"I've missed the old you." Candice briefly stroked Haley's hair. "I'm glad she's starting to come back."
"I don't know if she'll ever fully be back." Haley said honestly. "I mean, I can't mope around for the rest of my life. But Dave was such a huge part of the old me that…well, there's going to be some pieces missing."
"As long as you're better than you were when it first happened, I can handle that, and hope to restore you anyway. Besides, with Randy…" Candice began before Haley shook her head.
"I love Randy, Candice." She admitted out loud for the first time. "It took me awhile to come to terms with that, but I'm in love with him too. He means a great deal to me. If things were different, if there was no Dave, we'd probably have a happy ever after. But, there is Dave. I let him become my everything and because of it, now I have nothing left romantically to give to anyone else. Randy deserves better than that."
"I really hope that's not true, Haley." Candice said sadly. "I don't want you to be lost to Dave forever, you should be able to move on, live your life."
"I will live my life, Candice. And I'll be happy. I just don't think I'll love someone like that ever again. But if I'm wrong, and it is possible, you can say I told you so." Haley smiled.
"Well, since I can't do anything about that right now," Candice turned off the burner on the stove. "I'll focus on something I can change. You're too thin these days, let's eat."
(Becoming a Legacy)
"Physical therapy sucks!" Haley complained two days later to John Cena as they left the hospital after their physical therapy session. They had opted to schedule their appointments together so neither would have to go alone.
"Hey, your sessions are easier than mine, Baby girl." John winced as he got into the driver's seat of his car. "I'm the one with a herniated disk."
"Former herniated disk." Haley corrected. "You're healed now, hence the physical therapy. My shoulder feels like it's on fire. I've lost a lot of muscle."
"You'll get it back." He assured her. "And at least we're due to be cleared for competition around the same time as each other, Survivor Series."
"Thank God, that's only a few weeks away." Haley smiled. "I've missed the ring. I need to start kicking ass again, preferably starting with Eve's."
"She has royally fucked up everyone's lives lately hasn't she?" John disguised his chuckle by coughing. "I would love to be special guest referee when you face her. Think there might be a wardrobe malfunction?"
Haley shot him a dry look. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."
"What?" He shrugged innocently. "I am a guy, we tend to think along those lines, no matter how upstanding we're supposed to be. I think the statistics are that the average man thinks about sex every two minutes or some shit like that."
"And adjusts his belt whenever he's thinking about it." Haley added with a playful grin.
"That is information that you should not know." He shook his head while starting the car. "I demand to know where you get your information?"
"Well, I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." She looped her hair back into a loose bun. "So how come your return match is a title shot and mine is to be determined?"
"Cause the Champ needs to be here." He joked, before turning serious. "I don't know, Hales, with the McMahon's booting Adamle off RAW, which okay, about time! Anything's possible. Besides, with Stephanie in control now, things are going to start hopping now. I mean, SmackDown ruled when she was GM a few years ago."
Haley nodded in agreement. "Yes, I loved watching SmackDown in those days, everything was chaotic and exciting. You never knew what was going to happen. You were a lot different in those days too, Mr. Wannabe Vanilla Ice slash Eminem."
"Hey!" He exclaimed, looking slightly affronted. "I got over that phase. I'm much better now."
"If that's what helps you sleep at night." She said, humming under her breath and looking at the window.
"What? I am!" He argued.
"Sure." She said, biting her lip to keep from laughing as John continued to protest.
~Becoming a Legacy~
"Orton's got to be at the center of it." Hunter told Dave as the two men sat in a corner table at a local bar. "There's no way he just benefited from Eve's scheme by luck. He's involved somehow, I feel it."
"Well, Eve's a woman so I can't take out my frustrations on her as much as I want to," Dave clenched his fists underneath the table. "But if I find out Orton had anything to do with it…well, Hell will look like a Day Spa when I'm through with him."
"We've got to prove it first." Hunter reminded him. "Haley's feeding into all his lies right now because let's face it, Eve's actions made him look like a poster boy for her future boyfriend. And, if she falls in love with him…it's all over Dave."
Dave's expression hardened. "She loves me. She can't have gotten over me that quickly." His voice did not sound as confident as he would have liked.
"No." Hunter nodded his head. "She hasn't. I know Haley well enough to know that it will take her awhile to get over you, which gives us some time at least. But, we need to figure this out as quickly as possible before that process even starts."
"I just wish I knew what was going on with her." Dave sighed. "It's killing me, not to see her, touch her, hold her. She's everything to me, Hunter. I have to get her back."
"And I'm going to help you do that, but it's going to take some time. We have to prove that Eve set you up and that Randy had a part in it. We'll need something concrete to make Haley believe us at any rate." Hunter picked up his beer and took a sip before continuing. "Right now, Haley's focusing on her physical therapy, and is keeping Randy at arm's length, which is good news."
"How do you know? She's not talking to you either." Dave reminded him with a bitter scowl.
"Just because Haley's not letting me personally keep an eye out for her, Dave, doesn't mean I don't have other eyes on her to keep me in the loop." Hunter smirked knowingly.
"What, you've got Candice reporting to you or something?" Dave looked up hopefully.
"I wish, then I'd really know what's going on in my girl's head." Hunter scoffed. "You know Candice well enough to know she takes Haley's side no matter what. No, when I left Haley's house that day, I asked someone else to keep an eye on her for me. Someone who cares about her enough to stay close and despises Orton enough to watch him like a hawk."
"Who then?" Dave asked curiously.
"Who is the one other person in the entire WWE who hates Randy's guts more than we do? The one person who Randy terrorized and taunted into countless title matches, and has a history with Randy coercing Haley away from him." Hunter sat back and waited for the light to click on in Dave's head. "And coincidentally is able to stay close because you kicked his ass so much."
"Cena?" Dave blinked in surprise. "Cena's watching out for Haley?"
"They meet up a few times a week, going to physical therapy together and stuff. He hates Randy, cares about Haley and tells me what's going on when I'm not there to see for myself." Hunter nodded in satisfaction. "With his help, we're going to fix what Randy broke in Haley."