Two chapters in as many days... even I'm amazed! Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Monday Night Raw – Washington D.C.
Raw had been on air for one hour and John was done waiting for Zack to show his face for a match. It had been reported throughout the week that Randy still wasn't happy with him for not defending their relationship and that Zack was causing some discord between the pair.
John wasn't having that. He and Randy were fine and he was going to prove it.
As his music hit and the uproar came from the crowd, John made his way out onto the stage. He could tell he'd been back a few weeks as the crowd were starting to pick up more with the 'Cena Sucks' chant. It amused that those yelling those words were the same people who cheered for him before he retired. He was right in 2010 when he said the kids and women would cheer for him, and the grown men would boo him.
He saluted at the top of the ring, presenting the crowd with one of his 'Rise above Hate' shirts. He thought it appropriate after the previous week with Zack.
He practically raced down to the ring and grabbed the microphone off the steps before entering the ring.
"The John Cena Haters are starting to come out the woodwork so let's make this quick," John said to a loud cheer from the male fans. "I wasn't planning on being here this week but after slipping back into the dark ages at the hands of Zack Ryder I needed to get a few things off my chest."
He took his cap off running his hand across the short hair as he paced across the ring.
"According to Zack, I've gone soft. I'm not the man I once was. It appears that, the same is true for Randy. Apparently, my being gay is the cause of this. Welcome to the twenty first century, Zack. It's not considered wrong to be gay. I am proud of whom I am, of what I have with my partner, and if you have the guts to get out here right this second, I'll show just how tough I am when I kick your ass through every state and back again," John yelled, fired up by his own words. He felt the crowd getting behind him and he whipped off his shirt throwing it into the crowd.
As he waited for Zack to show up, he took off his dog tags, one for Randy and one for Alanna, kissed them both and tucked them into his shorts.
Zack's music finally hit and John smiled waiting for Zack. The man in question appeared a moment later and he came out onto the stage with Paige right behind him. Paige was looking as exasperated as she was the previous week and was clearly trying to tell Zack not to get pulled into a fight with John.
She stopped him halfway down the stage and as John walked to the ropes to tell him to get a move on; he was hit in the back. Big E had run in through the crowd and attacked from behind. John went down to one knee as Big E kicked at his mid section and hit him with forearms to his back. Spurred on from the crowd John found the strength to fight back and threw punch after punch at Big E until backed up into the far corner.
As John went to hoist Big E up onto his shoulders and deliver an Attitude Adjustment, a searing pain went through his back and he fell to his knees. He knew that pain better than anything he'd ever felt; he'd been hit with a steel chair. Randy himself had delivered enough over the years they fought one another, but he knew this time, it wasn't Randy delivering the shot.
He heard Paige yelling at Zack to stop, that he didn't need to do this, but the chair shots continued. John couldn't hold himself up any longer and he fell to the mat as Zack continued to rain chair shot after chair shot down on his back.
He heard a massive roar from the crowd and he hoped the security team were heading to the ring to stop Zack and Big E, who'd started weighing in with kicks to John's head. He turned his head to see who it was, and recognised the jeans. It was Randy.
As Randy hit the ring he received a couple of shots from Big E before firing back a couple of his own and when Zack went to hit him with a chair, he grabbed the weapon and kicked Zack in the gut to make him lose his grip. He swung the chair wildly as the two men retreated from the ring and headed to the ramp.
He threw a couple of threats at them before going over to John and checking on him, never letting go of the weapon in case he needed to use it in defence. As Randy crouched over John, the older man started to pull himself up and Randy helped him get to a sitting position.
Before John could get to his feet a high pitched scream pierced the arena and Paige launched herself at Randy, jumping on his back and throwing weak punches at his head.
"You attacked my boyfriend," she yelled as she threw each punch. "You attacked my boyfriend."
More irritated than hurt, Randy flipped her off his back only for her to land on her feet. She launched at him again but he caught her in an RKO. She lay flat on the mat and Randy stood over her and shrugged. He grabbed the chair from the mat and held a hand out for John who looked at him bemused.
Zack dashed to the ring and pulled Paige out of the ring by her feet, hoisting her over his shoulder as he carried her to the back of the arena. Randy standing in the ring throwing insults at Zack and Big E as they head up the ramp.
St Louis – three days later
"If I knew we were going to be decorating," Cody griped as he helped to sand down the walls in the spare room. "I wouldn't have agreed to come here. This is my day off and I had better things in mind for this weekend."
"Cody, for all intents and purposes, this is your room. You are likely to be the only people staying here, since more often than not we'll be in Florida when John's family stays with us. It makes sense for you to choose how we decorate it," Randy argued back. He hated participating in a bickering contest with Cody because the younger man would always win, mostly because Randy got exasperated and gave up. "If you really want, I'll decorate it how we want, since it is our house."
"You mean all black furniture like the master bedroom, honestly it's like you have no taste, have some colour in your life Randy."
"I'll have you know John chose the colour scheme for that room since I decorated our bedroom in Florida," Randy rebutted. "And will you get this god damn dog out of here, its traipsing mud all throughout my house. I'll need to get the carpets cleaned at this rate."
Downstairs, John entered the home with Alanna, their arms laden with bags of wallpaper, a couple of tins of paint and Alanna carried the soft furnishings to go with the decor.
"You leave my Rogue out of this," they heard Cody holler from upstairs.
"Cody, when they get back with the paint that dog better not be here. She's a menace and will turn my carpet blue with her paw prints."
"About time," Ted said coming through from the kitchen, keys in hand. "I cannot stand one more minute of those two arguing. First Cody doesn't want to decorate, and then Randy starts in on Rogue. They have been back and forth on the same two points for the last half hour."
John and Alanna chuckled at Ted's frustration. They all knew that Cody could get under Randy's skin at times, and although the two were close it was a good job they didn't see each other as frequently as they once did. If they did, they'd end up killing one another.
John went back out to the car and grabbed the last of the items as Alanna took the bags up to the bedroom.
"Tie that dog up somewhere before it ends up in tonight's dinner," Randy threatened.
"RANDY. Don't you listen to him, Rogue," Cody said.
"Okay, tag, you're it," Ted said hitting John on the shoulder and heading for the rental car he and Cody were using for the weekend.
"Wait, what do you mean?"
"I mean, you can sort the terrible twins out, I'm going for a drive, maybe even get myself a bite to eat. Anything to get away from them for a half hour," Ted said laughing.
John closed and locked the car and carried the bags inside and headed up the stairs toward the spare room. From what Ted had told him he was expecting to see Randy with Cody in a headlock, or worse have the dog by the throat.
Instead, he saw Randy and Cody facing opposite walls, Cody shaking his head and Randy full of tension in his shoulders.
"Cody, do you want to check we got all the right items," John suggested before walking over to Randy and running his hand over his back and receiving a quick kiss in reply.
"You sure you want to give him that task, he might start griping that you got the wrong item," Randy said. "Oh, and he doesn't like your choice of decor in our room."
"I didn't say that-"
"Yes, you did. Told me I needed to get some colour in my life, and I shouldn't keep choosing black furniture."
"I said-"
"That it's like I have no taste."
"Guys."
"Stop putting words in my mouth," Cody said getting agitated.
"Guys."
"I'm not putting them in your mouth, you let them come out of your big gob," Randy shot back.
"GUYS," John yelled. "Please, will you shut up arguing? Cody, go through the bags, if we've missed anything I can get it next time we go to the Home Depot store."
"Fine. And I didn't say that," Cody said demurely.
"You know what, I don't care. I liked the bed so I chose the items around it to match," John said with a shrug.
As he spoke, Rogue ran into the room and sniffed at John's leg before doing the same to Randy. Randy tensed up again and John cursed the fact that Randy insisted on wearing his muscle t-shirt when they got dressed that morning. All he could see now were the muscles in his shoulders, and as tense as they were, he could imagining helping him unwind and seeing the stress drain from his body.
"Ally," John called suddenly thinking of an idea to stop some of the arguing.
"Yeah?" She asked as she entered the room.
"Would you mind looking after Rogue while we work," John asked, pulling her to one side to mention to clean her feet since he was sure he had spotted a couple of dirty marks on the carpet in the hallway. He just had to find a way to distract Randy long enough to clean the dirt away.
"Ran, honey, I was thinking on the way back from the store, we still haven't gone through what you want for the kitchen," John said wrapping his arms around Randy pressing his chest into his lover's back. "We've got a few boxes left to unpack as well. Do you want to sort through those and make a list of what we need?"
"Sounds like a plan," he said putting the scraper down on the side with the tub of filler.
"Randy watch it, you almost got that on the curtains," Cody complained.
"Where exactly is his boyfriend? Shouldn't Ted be the one dealing with this?" Randy griped as he left the room.
"That's a point, where is Button?" Cody asked.
"You and Randy drove him insane with your arguing; he went to get a coffee, from the other side of St Louis," John explained picking up the scraper Randy had put down. "He won't be long."
Randy shook his head as he heard John explain that Ted had disappeared because of the bickering. He could understand that one, he was sick of it as well. He just wished Cody would listen to himself at times and realise how annoying he could be. Randy hadn't seen the domesticated side of Cody's personality as well.
He'd known he wasn't good in the kitchen, but didn't realise he was all about the right decor in a room. Randy and John worked together on their homes; each had a room they decorated. They took pride in their home and made sure it looked good, but never to the level Cody was taking it. The only room Randy was fussy over was the kitchen, and he knew why John let him take the lead on it, it was his domain.
When he'd moved to Florida with John, he'd put some of his belongings in storage, knowing they could come in handy in the future. He'd pulled some of the boxes out when they arrived back in St Louis the previous week but they didn't have time to go through everything and they lived out of restaurants for the few days they were in town. The only rooms they looked at were the two bedrooms.
As he unpacked the boxes and found homes for the items, he grabbed the pad and pen they were using to list the items they needed for the house, room by room. By the time he was through, he had three pages of items in the small pad. He knew John would roll his eyes at some of them items and at the end of the day, Randy would agree with him, but the first two pages were the essential equipment, pots, pans, steamer, and slow cooker. The bread and pasta makers were on the third page, he could live without them if need be.
As he wrote a final item in big letters at the end of the third page, hopefully something which John would appreciate, he looked up to see the man in question walk in. He pulled him into his side and kissed him quick on the lips.
"Mm, did you have to wear that top today?" John asked smiling lazily at Randy.
"I knew you'd like it," Randy said kissing him again.
"Did you make the list of what you need?" John asked seeing the pad and pen in his hand.
"I did," Randy said backing John against the counter, making sure to keep the list behind John's back. He kissed him languidly, hoping to appease his boyfriend before he saw all the pages. John played along and joined in the kiss, slipping his hands under Randy's shirt and feeling the muscles underneath.
"How crazy did you go?" John asked straight, when Randy ended the kiss.
"Just remember we're setting up a new home, and we need a working kitchen," Randy said coyly handing over the pad.
John scanned the first page, nodding his head as he went along and Randy thought it was a good sign. When he flipped the page, the nodding continued as his eyes travelled the length of the page until he hit the first of Randy's extravagancies. When he flipped over to the third page, John started shaking his head and laughing at the items.
"Do we have to get them in this order?" John asked he went back through the list.
"If I said yes, would that mean you'd agree so you can get a new washing machine?" Randy asked with a chuckle.
"No," John said laughing with Randy. "I'm not an idiot, Randal. We're not buying a new fridge freezer, pasta maker, oven, and why the hell would you want a blow torch for the kitchen, just because we NEED a new washing machine."
"Oh wait I forgot something," Randy said snatching the pad back and scribbling on another two items after washing machine. He handed the pad back to John with a huge grin on his face. "How about we go in order now?"
"No, but I'm buying that last one, we need a set for here," John said smiling as brightly as Randy. "And who knows, I might let you use them as well."
"Let me? Darling, if I want to use a pair of handcuffs on you, I will," Randy said pulling John in for another kiss. They meshed tongues for a while and John eventually let go.
"When Ted gets back, how about we go out, just the two of us, and get these items," John said, suddenly thinking better of his last statement. "Or, at least, some, then we can stop off and get a drink somewhere, spend some time together."
"Sounds good, darling," Randy said kissing him quick.
When he pulled away, John tugged on his shirt and yanked him back in, pressing their lips together. Randy, knowing what John was after, ran his tongue along the seam of his lips, seeking entrance. It didn't take much tempting for John to open to his lover and their tongues slowly melded together. He let his hands run up John's sides and he cupped John's face as they continued kissing, John placing his hands on Randy's butt to stop him from stepping back but more importantly so he could feel his lover's ass.
It was only when they doorbell stopped that the men stopped kissing, Randy leant his forehead against John's, "I could kiss you like that all day."
"Me too," John said smiling as the doorbell went again.
"Alright, alright," Randy griped as he walked to the door, wishing Ted had thought to borrow a key before disappearing. Randy opened the door and was about to comment when he saw someone he didn't expect. He knew his plans for the afternoon had just been changed.
"Hi Randy, can I come in?"
"Yeah," he said shaking his head of the cobwebs. "I guess you should."
"Is he here?"
"He's in town," Randy said. "But not here, at least not at this moment in time."
"Ted, where did..." Cody stopped short when he saw the person stood in the entryway.
"Hi Cody. It's good to see you."
"Kristen..."
"Where are they?" Alanna asked as she entered the kitchen to see her dad.
"Outside," Randy said pouring the coffee for everyone. "Would you mind taking these up to John and Cody? I'll bring ours up after I've taken these out to Ted and Kristen."
"Sure," she said taking the two cups upstairs. By the time she made it up to the room, listening to make sure Rogue wasn't scratching at her door to get out. Randy was following close behind.
"What were they talking about?" Cody asked as soon as they were in the room.
"I didn't listen to their conversation, not that they were talking much," Randy said handing Alanna her cup of decaf.
"Yeah, but-"
"Codes, we'll find out... you'll find out as soon as they're done," Randy said trying to calm Cody. "Ted will want to talk to you, just as he always has, since the day you met. You've always been the same."
"Come on, if we get this room finished," John suggested. "He'll have somewhere to come at the end of the day, with you holding him."
"He likes to hold me," Cody said sadly.
"And the same thing applies; it'll be somewhere good for him to come and rest after a stressful day," Randy said putting a comforting hand on Cody's shoulder. "Come on, let's decorate. You'll get to see John try and work out wallpaper patterns."
Cody smiled weakly and the three of them went to work on the room. John focused on the wallpaper, swearing under his breath when he was trying to line the pattern up, while Randy and Cody painted the walls with the shade of magnolia Cody had picked out.
Short of John's mumbled swearing, the three worked in peace for an hour or so. Alanna would bring Rogue in from time to time and it would help distract Cody to get cuddles, but when Randy would get agitated as she got near the paint, Alanna would take her back to her room to keep out his way.
After a while, Cody started checking his watch ever few minutes, checking to see how long they had been down there talking.
"Do you think I should go down with him, for support?"
"No, Codes," Randy said gently.
"Cody, if Ted needs you with him, he'll let you know," John said. "She wouldn't understand why you would be there if you just show up. He needs to let her know things have changed between the two of you."
"I know, but its Ted. I shouldn't let him go through something like this himself," Cody said, scared that he wasn't supporting his lover. "He wouldn't let me go through this alone."
"Codes, you asked him, remember," Randy prompted. "He said he didn't to speak with her alone."
Cody nodded and went back to work painting the walls. If John needed help with the wallpaper, he would ask Cody, in hopes of distracting him, but it didn't work. When Cody turned away to his wall, John prodded Randy in the side, and gave him a look as if to ask what they were going to do with him.
Randy shrugged in return feeling sorry for his friend. At the end of the day, there was nothing he could do for Cody and Ted but offer words of comfort. Right now though, he didn't know what to tell Cody since no one knew why Kristen had suddenly showed up again.
Ted and Kristen had separated after just a year of marriage and Ted threw himself into his career and benefited from it. He worked his way back into televised storylines and when John and Randy returned he was one of the few they were pulled up to be the new locker room leaders. Randy just hoped that Kristen wasn't trying to get back in his life because of the success he was now getting as the champion.
Randy checked his watch and prodded John whispering that he was going to go down and start the dinner.
"Do you have everything you need?" John asked quietly
"I'll let you know if I need anything," Randy said kissing John briefly, more to share his own support. It was hard when a friend was hurting and you couldn't help.
"I can come and help if you like," Cody said hearing their conversation.
"It's better to stay busy up here, Codes. I'll let you know if you're needed," Randy said placing his hand on Cody's shoulder for comfort again.
Randy made his way quietly down to the kitchen, hoping he wouldn't disturb Ted and Kristen if they had moved inside. He grabbed the recipe he'd printed from his mom's computer and made a list of what he needed. He had almost all the food, just needed some tomatoes to make the sauce, and he required a blender as well.
He jogged up the stairs and let John know, indicating to take Cody with him as well.
While he was upstairs, Randy check on Alanna who was having a conversation with Mike via the internet and showing him the dog. From the state of her desk, it looked like she'd been spending some time working on her assignment so he didn't tell her not to talk for too long. It was her summer break and she deserved to have some fun as well as complete her schoolwork.
He went back down to the kitchen and started work on the rest of the dinner; he needed a distraction as much as Cody did. He was chopping the peppers when he heard the back door open and Ted hold the door for Kristen to walk through.
He gave a small smile, which both Kristen and Ted returned, but they both looked emotional and tired. Whatever they discussed, it was huge.
"I'll be touch soon; I promise," Randy heard Ted say as he showed Kristen to the door. He heard the door shut but it was a few minutes before Ted reappeared. The younger man didn't say anything and made his way through the kitchen and back out onto the patio area.
Randy had to stop himself going out there, knowing that Ted would want to talk to Cody about things first. Thankfully it was only ten minutes later when John and Cody returned.
"She's gone, and I think Ted would like you to go out and see him," Randy said to Cody when he appeared with questioning eyes.
Cody didn't say anything and went straight out the back door to see Ted. He found him sat at the table and chairs and as much as he wanted to take the seat next to him, he needed a friend more than a lover right now.
When Ted spotted him coming, his hand covered something sat on the table and he pulled it to him so Cody couldn't see.
Cody sat in the seat opposite Ted and waits patiently for Ted to talk. It's up to him how much he shares with Cod. It didn't take long before Ted was telling him what went down.
"...she's wanted to come and see me for some time, but never found the courage. It was only because she saw my dad that she realised it was time," Ted said. "I told her about us. I wanted her to be clear that there was no chance of getting back together."
"What did she say?"
"She wasn't looking to get back with me, the only reason she's wanted to see me was because she's had something to tell me," Ted explained. "Dad mentioned I was staying here in St Louis this week and she did some digging around on the internet to find out the address. I guess she thought it would be easier to deal with this away from either of our homes."
"What was the news?" Cody asked gently.
"When we separated, she didn't know it at the time, and she doesn't believe in... she was pregnant," Ted said looking up at Cody, a scared look in his eyes.
"She had an affair?" Cody asked confused. "I never would have suspect-"
"She didn't have an affair, Cody," Ted said sincerely, hoping he didn't need to spell it out; he saw the light bulb go on in Cody's eyes and confirmed his thoughts. "I'm a father, Codes. I have a son, Tate."
"Oh."
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed :) Please review :)