Chapter 31 – Visiting Hours Are Open
It had been 9 days since the news had broken about Heidi Maree Orton's return and as soon as John Cena had heard the news from his girlfriend and Heidi's aunt, Alle Dumas, he had wanted to get on the next plane to see his little girly. Unfortunately considering Heidi's condition and her need to rest up and heal, the hospital had put a 5 day ban on visitors to see the young Orton except for family – her parents, her godparents, her aunt and Ash Irvine had been snuck in there as well. For the rest of Heidi's WWE family, such as John, however, they had to wait for the 5 day ban to be lifted and then wait for work commitments to give them a break before plane tickets to Raleigh were bought and rental cars were hired to get to the Sanford Hospital. Despite the distance and the amount of time he'd had to wait already, Cena hadn't minded being stuck in a rental car full of chatty WWE divas. All that mattered was that he was here now with Heidi.
Upon hearing that a crowd of WWE superstars and divas were on their way, Randy and Lita had decided to lessen the crowding in Heidi's hospital room and had therefore organized more meetings with Heidi's doctors about the 18-year-old's condition and when she would be likely to be able to head home. John looked around the room and he could see that Randy and Lita had definitely had the right idea.
He was currently standing back from Heidi's bed, partly because he didn't want to crowd Heidi and partly because there was barely a spare spot around the bed where his wider than normal shoulders could fit. His eyes were drawn to count the number of people in the room at present with him. There were of course his 4 female driving companions Maria, Torrie Wilson and the blonde twins, Penny and Brooke. Then there were the other two females in the room, Miss Lillian Garcia, Victoria and their husbands Dave Batista and Christian. Considering Dave took up half the room on his own, John had pretty much been shoved to the outskirts of the room. If Penny and Brooke hadn't been so short and standing directly in front of him, he was pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to see Heidi at all. He was glad he could though because he couldn't describe how happy it made him to see Heidi Orton there, sitting in her bed, absolutely beaming because they were all here to see her.
"I can't believe that you're actually here," Lillian spoke from her position directly on Heidi's right.
"You can't imagine how worried we all were about you honey," Maria added "We were all soo worried Heids."
"Freaking out is more like it!" Penny exclaimed, nodding furiously "Like totally totally freaking out because we had no idea where you were!"
"Totally!" Brooke added "We were all freaking out!"
Cena couldn't help himself from rolling his eyes at the blondeness of the twins. He was sure that they couldn't possibly be as dumb as they came off, but the bimbo in them just shone like a damn beacon when they spoke in those high, squeaky voices. It also didn't help that their vocabulary often saw them using the words 'totally'. It did make making fun of them a hell of a lot easier for him though.
"I'm so happy that you're all here right now," Heidi spoke, her eyes travelling slowly over each and every person in the room as she spoke "Thank you so much for coming all this way."
"Sweetheart we could have been in Australia and we still would have come running the moment we heard the news," Vicki replied with a smile at the young Orton.
"Except that we couldn't because of that stupid visitor ban you had on you," Christian commented.
"Yeah Mum was telling me about it," Heidi said, turning to face Christian "I was apparently supposed to be resting."
"You could have rested with visitors still," Maria commented "I mean it's not like we were going to come and visit you and toss you around."
Heidi let a small laugh escape her lips at the face that Vicki and Lillian sent Maria after that comment.
"Mum also said Vince wouldn't let you guys off from work either," Heidi spoke, trying to change the subject and save Maria from whatever Lillian and Vicki could come up with.
"Yeah," Lillian nodded, rolling her eyes as she did so "He wouldn't let us off until yesterday."
"Understandable though," Torrie commented "Cause I mean otherwise he'd be missing a good chunk of the roster."
"Yeah but then the rest of us that weren't on the roster weren't allowed to come any sooner either," Vicki commented, turning to glare at Penny and Brooke "Cause some people were whining like a bunch of 5 year olds that they were going to be left behind."
"We were not!" Penny and Brooke exclaimed in unison.
"God, it feels like forever since Wrestlemania," Dave spoke, desperately trying to change the direction of conversation before it headed into another 'Penny and Brooke' vs 'the world' argument.
He'd heard just about enough of those on the plane to Raleigh as he could handle right now.
"Fuck, doesn't it?" Christian replied with a nod "It feels like a million years ago."
"Trust me, it feels like a million years ago since I could actually walk around without this damn thing in my hand too," Heidi said, shaking her head as she glared at the drip still attached to her hand.
"Does it hurt?" Maria asked, a look of sheer concern crossing her features as she looked down at the needle in Heidi's hand "Like the drip."
Heidi simply shook her head.
"Not so much anymore Ria," Heidi replied "It's been in that damn long I've forgotten what it feels like to not have it in."
"What about your stitches?" Penny quickly asked, pointing furiously to the stitches in Heidi's forehead "Do they hurt?"
"Of course they hurt doofus," Brooke answered her sister, shoving her slightly with her shoulder.
The chain reaction of course saw Penny bump into Christian who then bumped into Vicki and because the raven haired Diva wasn't expecting it, she lost her balance entirely and almost tripped over Heidi's IV stand and onto her ass. Cena couldn't help but snigger at the glare Vicki gave her husband as she regained her balance. Christian looked like he was going to wet his pants at the dirty look Vicki sent him.
"Girls, obviously they did hurt but they probably don't hurt anymore," Lillian replied, turning her gaze from Heidi to the twins.
"Have you ever had stitches in your head my dear?" Dave asked, chuckling at his wife's last comment.
"Well no," Lillian replied, shaking her head "But I mean they can't hurt after 5 days can they?"
"They don't!" Vicki replied defending her friend.
"Thank you Vik!" Lillian replied.
"And yes Dave I have had stitches so I know," Vicki added, looking matter-of-factly at her friend's husband.
"Yeah but those were stitches in your finger," Christian said, rolling his eyes at his wife "They are very very different to stitches in your head."
"Yeah well it's still stitches Christian so you can shut up!" Vicki replied, folding her arms and turning as far away from her husband as possible.
"Seriously guys they don't hurt anymore," Heidi suddenly spoke, trying to calm the arguing in the room "I'm drugged up on a lot of morphine right now in this drip anyway."
"And morphine is good!" Maria said.
"When have you ever had morphine Ria?" Torrie asked, scrunching up her nose in confusion as she turned to face Maria.
"That time I broke my nose," Maria answered.
"You mean that time you went for a cross-body off the top rope and missed and fell on your nose?" Vicki snickered.
"Hey!" Maria exclaimed "Natalya moved at the last minute and she wasn't supposed to!"
"Still doesn't mean you had to land on your nose Ria," Lillian spoke, a small chuckle leaving her lips as she remembered sitting ringside and watching the incident unfold a couple of years ago.
"My arms were slow alright!?" Maria exclaimed in her defense, crossing her arms in a huff "It was a long match and I was tired and my arms were tired too so they were slow!"
"I believe you sweetheart," John suddenly spoke, taking a step forward to put an arm around Miss Kanellis.
"Thank you John," Maria replied with a smile as she turned to send him a wide smile.
"Oh God you're a suck up Cena," Vicki said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey!" John exclaimed in his defense "Now it ain't fair when you all pick on Ria at the same time."
"Yeah," Maria pouted as she wrapped her arms around Cena.
"Someone's gotta even the odds a little for the poor girl," John continued.
"Oh dear God," Lillian said rolling her eyes.
"You know John you should come and defend us sometime," Brooke said, putting on her best pouty face as she looked all wide eyed at John across the room "The girls in the locker room pick on us all the time!"
"Yeah, they do!" Penny said, pouting in a similar fashion to her sister.
"That's cause you two wouldn't know the difference between Brett Hart and Braveheart," Lillian scoffed, rolling her eyes at the act the twins were currently putting on.
"Who's Braveheart?" Penny asked, her head titling to the side as she looked at Lillian with a look of sheer confusion on her face.
"Brett Hart's brother, duh!" Brooke stated, looking at her sister "Don't be dumb Penny!"
John felt like his brain was going to explode with the level of stupidity that the blonde twins were currently showing. Thank God those two were pretty. Thank God.
"So, when do you get out of here Heids?" Dave asked, trying again to divert the attention in the room away from Penny and Brooke.
"No idea," Heidi sighed as she flopped her arms down by her sides "This place is seriously getting on my nerves though."
"God I hate hospitals," Christian chimed in.
"Yeah me too," Heidi said nodding "And I've been in here for longer than I can handle right now.
John could see the look on Heidi's face as the frustration showed. It was only then did he notice how tired she looked as well. From what Randy and Lita had described, the doctors made sure that Heidi only had visitors for max half of her day because they wanted to make sure that the other half of her day she was resting. John thought about it though and the more he did the more he realized that if he had been through half of what Heidi had he wouldn't be getting much sleep at all. It seemed like Heidi was pretty much the same. The dark circles under her eyes were sticking out like a sore thumb and he didn't think it helped with how thin she still was. Heidi had always been a really slim girl, but the way she looked right now made her look like she was in this hospital right now for an eating disorder more than anything else.
"I love hospitals!" Brooke suddenly exclaimed.
"Yeah, they're always so full of such cute doctors!" Penny added.
"Oh yeah I love cute doctors!" Brooke chimed in.
"Oh my god," Lillian exclaimed "Did you two not take your blonde medication today because I swear you are coming up with much dumber things than you usually do!"
"Lil!" Vicki exclaimed, not quite believing that Lillian had been so upfront and rude about what she said.
The raven haired Diva, though, couldn't help a small laugh escaping her lips at what Lillian had said. A hand quickly rising to cover her mouth to stifle her laughter.
"Lil that's not very nice," Torrie chimed in, trying to reprimand her friend as well but the giggles started getting the best of her too.
"We're not dumb!" Penny and Brooke exclaimed in unison.
"No just what comes out of those mouths of yours is," Lillian said sighing as she ran her fingers through her blonde hair.
"You shouldn't hate on blondes sweetheart," Dave said as he turned to face his wife "Cause you're in that boat too."
"Yeah you are!" Brooke exclaimed.
"Yeah!" Penny exclaimed as well.
"Yeah but I didn't just say that Braveheart was Brett Hart's brother now did I?" Lillian exclaimed in her defense, a laugh escaping her lips.
"Well I'm sorry that I don't know Brett Hart's entire family tree so leave me alone!" Brooke answered back.
"Yeah leave us alone!" Penny exclaimed.
As entertaining as it was trying to watch the Dumb and Dumber twins try and defend themselves in a verbal argument with Lillian, who was one of the sharpest girls he'd ever met, John's eyes immediately found Heidi as the arguing continued. By the look on the young Orton's face she was also enjoying the show but the way she was furrowing her brow and wincing indicated to John that she was getting a bit of a headache with all the loud talking from the majority of people in the room right now. Dave had seen it too as his eyes drifted from Heidi to meet John's.
"Whoah whoah ladies, too much noise!" Dave exclaimed, drawing the attention of the room to him "I think we should leave Heidi to get her rest now."
"No!" Penny, Brooke and Ria all exclaimed in unison.
"No Dave's right," Vicki chimed in, her eyes noticing Heidi's condition as well "We've been in here for ages anyway."
"Yeah," Torrie added "Plus we can always come back tomorrow to visit."
"I'm sorry guys I'm just really tired," Heidi said "And…."
"Hey," Lillian spoke, reaching out a hand to rub the exposed skin on Heidi's arm "Nothing on it sweetheart. You need to rest."
"Yeah, we'll come back tomorrow and see you," Christian said, reaching out and touching Heidi's arm as well.
"Just the 5 of us," Dave explained, indicating to Vicki, Christian, Lillian and himself.
"And Cena," John Cena added matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, like we'd be able to get rid of you anyway Coolio," Vicki sighed rolling her eyes at John before she took Christian's hand "We'll see you tomorrow."
"OK," Heidi said with a smile as she watched everyone head for the door "Thank you all for coming to see me. I really appreciate it."
"We love you Heids," Penny and Brooke said in unison before they left the room.
"Me and Torrie are coming back to visit tomorrow too," Maria smiled at Heidi before blew her a kiss and then disappeared out of the room with Torrie.
Christian, Vicki, Dave and Lillian then did the same with Cena following close behind.
"John," Heidi suddenly called out, causing Cena to quickly turn around to face the young Orton.
"Yeah girly?" John asked with a smile as he stood in Heidi's doorway.
He was the last one left in the room.
"Can you stay with me for a bit?" Heidi asked, a small smile forcing its way across her face.
"For sure," John replied immediately, the smile widening on his face as he stepped back into the room and closed the door behind him.
Heidi watched as John then silently made his way across the room to her bedside. He pulled the chair, from its position sitting up against the way, towards him and shuffled it around so he could sit on it next to Heidi's bed and be facing her. As he sat down the Doctor of Thugonomics took the young girls hand in his as he sent her another smile. Heidi couldn't help but smile at him.
"How're you really doing?" John asked, his voice soft, yet clearly full of concern.
Heidi looked at him and she realized in that moment how much she had missed John Cena. For as long as she could remember John had been in her life. Whether it was on the road or whether it was as her aunty's on-off boyfriend, John had always been there for her while she was growing up. She had the greatest memories of him taking her out to the ring while he was warming up before a show. She remembered how her father had hated it but how much fun she had had when John could then pull her into the ring and do some ridiculously over the top sequence of moves that made it appear that she was kicking his ass. He would then let her pin him for the 1, 2, 3 and then would lift her high on his shoulders and run around the ring in a victory lap. She remembered it happening right up until she was about 10 years old. It happened for the last time when she had accidentally mis-judged a step and had kneed him hard in the crotch. She had thought it was hilarious but John hadn't thought so. He had ended up spending the rest of the night walking like he'd just burnt his ass on a hot plate.
"I have no idea" Heidi finally answered, her words honest and clear as she delivered them "I still feel like I'm trapped even though I know I'm free"
"How come?" John asked, his eyes narrowing at her as he listened intently.
His hand squeezing hers.
"Cause I'm still scared out of my mind," Heidi answered "I dream about it constantly and it's always on my mind what happened to me in that place. And then I'm petrified because I know that this isn't over."
"This is over girly," John said, his words sure and strong "You're safe here and no one is going to let anything happen to you, ok? No one is going to let them or anyone else hurt you ever again."
Heidi took a deep breath as she looked into the blue eyes of the man in front of her.
"I'm pregnant John," Heidi stated.
"You're what?" John asked, shaking his head slightly.
Sure that he couldn't be hearing her properly. Sure that he had mis-heard what she had just said.
"I'm pregnant," Heidi repeated "He raped me and now I'm pregnant"
John felt himself biting down hard on his lip as he tried to control the sudden surge of anger he felt coursing quickly through his veins. All he wanted to do was pick up the chair he was sitting on and throw it hard at the wall. All he wanted to do was put his fist through the white wall next to him. He could feel the anger just building and building and as he gritted his teeth. The only thing that was keeping him from letting his anger run rampant was the young girl in front of him. After everything she had been through, the last thing she needed was to see him like that. She needed his support, not for him to be throwing things through walls.
"Of all the low things that they did to you..," John started, his voice slow as he tried to speak through his bottling rage.
"I know," Heidi sighed "It wasn't how I wanted my first time to be at all. Neither did I want it to lead to me being pregnant."
John nodded, his breathing heavy as she tried to keep himself calm.
"Was it just one of them?" John asked.
"The rape?" Heidi asked.
Cena simply nodded.
"Just the one," Heidi replied "It was only the one of them that did all of this to me too."
Heidi pointed to all the bruises, which were fortunately slowly fading, and the stitches in her forehead and forearm, which were just starting to heal.
"The other two were there but they didn't touch me," Heidi added.
So many questions started flooding through John's mind but the look on Heidi's face made him re-think asking them right now. He wanted to know everything. He wanted to know what those bastards had done to her and who they were. He wanted to know so he could hunt them down and kill them. People like that didn't deserve life and they definitely didn't not deserve to live in this world because they'd probably just do it all again to some other young innocent girl. John had wanted to ask all his questions so he could get a little closer to figuring out who these people were but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Heidi was tired and he could see that. She looked exhausted. She was still recovering, not just physically but emotionally and mentally as well. She was still fragile and he knew that she still had a lot of heavy thoughts weighing on her mind. The last thing she needed right now was an interrogating session.
"So who knows that you're pregnant apart from me?" John asked, distracting himself from asking questions about Heidi's kidnappers "Have you told anyone?"
"The doctor told my parents and they told me," Heidi answered "Apart from that I've only told Ash and now you."
"That boy has been visiting you a lot," John commented, in reference to Heidi's mention of Chris Jericho's son.
"He's my best friend," Heidi replied simply "He's been here basically every day visiting me and I desperately needed someone to talk to about it."
Cena nodded.
"Are you planning on telling anyone else?" John asked, his hand squeezing Heidi's as the words left his lips.
Heidi smiled and squeezed his hand back.
"I don't know," she answered honestly "I probably will but probably not right now."
"Are you scared about telling people?" John asked.
"Terrified," Heidi answered honestly, a huge sigh escaping her lips.
"Because of what you think they'll say?" John pushed, trying to get Heidi to open up a little and talk to him.
He knew her mind was in turmoil. He also knew who she was. He knew Heidi, pretty much like the back of his hand, and he knew that she functioned better when she talked things through.
"Not that," Heidi replied, slightly shaking her head "I know that none of the divas or the guys backstage are going to judge me for it because honestly I had no other choice and that part is obvious."
"Plus I'd kick their ass if they said any bad word about it," John replied with a wink in the young Orton's direction.
"Sure you would tough guy," Heidi replied rolling her eyes as she turned to look John in the eye.
Heidi smiled and Cena smiled back at her.
"I'm scared that they'll judge me for the part that I do have a choice about," Heidi continued.
"What part is that?" John asked, confusion crossing his mind for a moment.
"That I'm keeping the baby," Heidi answered, her eyes locked on John as she spoke.
She had wanted to see his God's honest reaction when she broke the news to him that she was going to keep the baby she was pregnant with. She wanted to see the look in his eyes and the expression on his face the moment the words left her lips. She wanted to know how he really felt before he had a chance to change it with his words.
"I wasn't sure if you'd already decided that, that's why I didn't ask," John replied, a half smile on his lips.
Heidi had seen the startle and shock in his eyes straight away, but apart from that there was nothing that spoke a single ounce of judgment. There was nothing she could see in his eyes that had made her feel like he didn't think she was doing the right now. The look on his face hadn't made her feel uneasy at all.
"I only decided yesterday when Ash was here and I was talking to him about it," Heidi answered "He kind of made me see another side to it."
"What side is that?" John asked, leaning slightly forward towards her as he re-adjusted her hand in his.
"The fact that this baby is the silver lining," Heidi replied "I mean after the hell I went through, this baby is the light at the end of the tunnel. The thing that's going to make this whole ordeal worth every part of it. Every time I look at him or her I'm not going to be reminded of all the horrible stuff that happened to me and I'm not going to wish that all of that horrible stuff didn't happen because if it didn't happen I wouldn't have my baby. In the long run I think it's going to be a hell of a lot easier for me to heal that way. If I have something beautiful come out of this hell. It'll make me stop regretting the decisions I made that put me through what I went through. It'll make me stop wishing that things were different."
"I think you're right," John nodded.
Heidi smiled at him. It was comforting to hear those words leave his lips and from the look in his eyes she knew that he meant it. She knew that he didn't think she was stupid for wanting to keep her baby. She knew that he actually did think that what she was doing was right.
"You're an incredibly brave woman you know that," John spoke again.
His voice had broken Heidi out of her momentary thoughts and she simply smiled at him.
"Have you told your parents?" John asked.
"Not yet, but I am going to," Heidi said shaking her head "I wanted to talk to someone else and make sure I wasn't completely insane first. I mean Ash didn't think I was but I wanted someone else to confirm that I wasn't crazy for making this decision."
"So that's why you asked me to stay?" John asked, an eyebrow rising at the young Orton "You're using me are you?"
"You love it loser," Heidi said, rolling her eyes at John Cena as a small laugh escaped her lips.
Without so much as a warning John then stood up slightly from his chair and in one swift motion he leaned forward and engulfed Heidi in a hug. She closed her eyes as she left his arms around her. Her head rested in the crook of his neck.
"You're not crazy," John spoke as one of his hands rose to rest on the back of her head "I'm happy that you made this decision on your own. Now you know that this is what you want, not what anyone else has told you that you want. Now you know that you've made the right decision for you."
Heidi tried to control it but she felt a single tear roll down her cheek as she held John closed to her.
"Thank you," Heidi replied.
A/N: What did everyone think? Looks like Heidi is going to keep her baby – do you think Lita, and especially Randy will be happy with their daughter's decision to keep her rapists baby?
Please READ & REVIEW and keep a look out for the next chapter: Chapter 32 – The Worst Kind of Punishment where another big bombshell is dropped! Any ideas what it could be?
God Bless, Mrs Bridget Orton xxx