Chapter 41

"Nobody compares to you. The King of the Scots has nothing on you, Andrew." Tressa meant that, her tears slowly drying up the more he kissed them away until his mouth captured hers, pulling her against him. He was careful of the baby, mindful and she moaned in his mouth, tasting her sexy Scotsman again. It was hard to believe and a little surreal they had chosen their baby names and they didn't even know the sex yet. "You know, I didn't get a hotel room yet…and I'd much rather spend the night in bed with you than in another lonely hotel. Do you want me to stay with you tonight or do you think that's too soon?"

Maybe it was too fast for them, but then again, they were doing everything ass backward since she was pregnant by him already. Now that made him pull back to arm's length, just staring at her in the moon and starlight because he wasn't sure if she was being serious or not. She was and that was…odd, but weirdly cute as well. She was hesitant and nervous, and they had skipped all the traditional formalities a long time ago.

"Me bed is plenty large for us both and I think we're long past the point of 'too soon'," His hand dropped back down to her baby bump, giving it a firm, pointed caress. "Unless ye want to start over and I'll court ye the good old-fashioned way?" Drew doubted it, however.

She snorted, rolling her eyes, and shook her head. "I don't need to be courted. You treat me like a queen anyway and I just want to be with you."

Working for the same company did not mean they would see each other very often. They could share hotel rooms, she supposed, but maybe Drew wasn't ready for that step and the last thing Tressa wanted to do was push him into something he wasn't ready for. It was bad enough she had gotten pregnant the first time they had sex.

"I like the way things have progressed between us, honestly. Starting over would just feel…mediocre and wrong, for some reason. We're continuing what we started, that sounds better, and I'd love to spend the night with you." Waking up in his arms was her idea of heaven, along with pineapple.

Was it too early for bed? Yes and no, but he didn't exactly have sleeping in mind and given Tressa's sexual appetite, on top of how sensitive her body was, due to the pregnancy hormones changing everything, he didn't think sleep was on her agenda either. "Let's go get a shower or a bath." He suggested, knowing they both still needed one from their earlier romp out here in the yard. "Let tomorrow sort out tomorrow, Tressa." Back to work, their relationship, it would all progress as it should and he was looking forward to the ride.

"Okay."

They still had one more day off tomorrow and then it would be back to the road for the house shows. She let him guide her from the swing back inside the house and squealed when he actually swept her up in his strong arms, showing just how powerful he was. Drew cradled her lovingly against him and she rested her head against his shoulder, just enjoying being in this man's arms. The way he lovingly undressed her and made love to her was something Tressa would never forget, burning it into her memory. Falling asleep in his arms, she had a smile on her face and hope for the future for the first time since Joseph's death.

"Andrew is the father, Stephanie."

It took Stephanie a moment to figure out who she was talking about. "Andrew? Andrew who? Is he your new boyfriend or something?" Sometimes, she let things fly right over her head.

Tressa chuckled, shaking her head, and rubbed her bigger stomach, just about 19 weeks along now. "Andrew – Drew McIntyre. He's the father of my baby."

Stephanie's jaw dropped, her blue eyes widening, and wondered how THIS came about because everybody assumed it was Jon. "Wow…" She didn't know what to say or think about this, trying to get over her shock quickly. "All right…are you two together, then?"

"Yes, but we don't want to broadcast it to the world. We're not showing any kind of PDA at work and we're doing our jobs first and foremost. Once we're out of the arena and off the clock, it's our business what happens between us and we want to keep this as private as possible."

Stephanie could respect that, nodding. "Very well. I will make sure he has leave at the same time as you when the baby is set to be born."

"Thank you, Steph." They hugged and Tressa left her office, feeling marginally better now that Stephanie knew the truth about her pregnancy.

Later that night, everyone waited with bated breath as Roman Reigns returned to WWE television 5 months after leaving, after announcing his battle with cancer.

"I'm in remission, y'all."

"Oh my god…" Tressa covered her mouth with her hand, watching the incredible moment on Monday night Raw, standing in front of a monitor along with the other employees of the company.

Nobody was doing their job right now.

Every single person was in front of a monitor of some kind, watching this. Joe was cancer free. Joe had whooped Leukemia's ass and he was BACK. Tressa was more than happy for her friend, someone she considered a brother, and let the tears slide down her cheeks. Suzanne and Tabitha hugged, both of them knowing how much this meant to her and they watched both Colby and Jon walk down the hallway toward gorilla. Jon stopped at the last minute, turned around, and went in the opposite direction, wiping at his eyes. He was too emotional to go out there to greet Joe at the top of the stage with Colby…and he was supposed to be a heel in the company at the moment, while Colby and Joe were faces.

Jon stopped when he spotted Tressa, wiping tears off of his face. Being this insane, germophobic villain was not conducive to what he actually wanted to do right now. He wanted to be out there, celebrating this monumental news with his best friends and, instead, he was probably going to wind up using it as villain fodder later in the evening. He didn't even need to say anything when he saw the tears on her face, he just reached out and pulled her into his arms, mindful of that baby bump. Not bothering to hide his own tears, he buried his face in her hair, feeling her laughing and crying at the same time.

Hell, he was too.

What Jon didn't know was the WWE planned on changing direction completely with his character and it would start later that night.

"He's okay, Jon…he beat it. He survived!"

Tressa couldn't stop crying, clinging to her best friend for dear life, and could feel him physically trembling against her. No wonder he couldn't go out there with Colby! Jon was an emotional wreck and she knew this meant the world to him because of how close he was to Joe. Jon and Joe were like two peas in a pod; Jon even called Roman his 'road wife' on the Chronicles special WWE made for him for the WWE Network. It was a documentary that chronicled the last few months of his recovery, including his return and heel turn against Colby.

"You need to go see him. I know you didn't want to do it out in front of all those fans, but…you need to go see him in gorilla. Do you want me to go with you?"

"Well yeah, darlin', you're our mascot, you have to come and share the good feels!" He laughed, pulling away to brush tears out of his eyes, and grinned down at her. "Let's go." He laced his fingers with hers, already tugging her down towards the gorilla. "I can't believe that son of a bitch didn't say a word to us." He shook his head, not overly bothered by hearing it at the same time as the rest of the world. He bet Joe had been sitting anxiously on that bit of news. "Sorry, I'm dragging you." He slowed his pace, glancing down at her.

Tressa rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head. "I'm not made of glass, Jon, and you weren't pulling me that hard."

He saluted her before they both hurried down the hallway, Jon keeping an eye out for the Superstars plowing through. He was protective of her, even though she was pregnant with another man's baby…her current boyfriend. They arrived at gorilla position and Joe was swarmed with people, Colby right by his side. Tears of happiness slid down her cheeks all over again and Jon squeezed her hand, both of them waiting patiently to get their chance with Joe.

Of course, he was protective, she was his best friend, and probably always would be, no matter what. It had taken Jon longer than he would have liked to come to his senses, as well as work through his own issues about her, but he finally had. Of course, she was probably not telling him everything like she used to and that was fine, he kept his own shit to himself too. Some things had been changed and there was no getting them back, but that was life.

"Hey Wife, hurry the hell up with your fan club!"

Joe heard that and looked over, flipping Jon off before returning to accepting the congratulations of his friends and coworkers. Thank God the fans couldn't get to him, that would have been a LOT of people to deal with. His hand was already hurting from all these handshakes he had to keep accepting.

Tressa hadn't told Jon about her and Drew because, honestly, it was nobody's business. They were best friends, but both she and Drew wanted to keep this to themselves for the time being. Those two days in Tampa at his home, they learned a lot about each other and they were very private people, or tried to be. She hadn't told Stephanie right away about who the father was simply because the woman had gone off the road until today to be with her own kids for a bit. Stephanie wasn't angry at her, understood where she was coming from, and promised not to say anything to anyone besides the people who NEEDED to know. It was up to Drew and Tressa if they wanted to tell other people about their budding relationship.

Joe finally made it toward them and hugged Jon first, murmuring something in his ear Tressa couldn't quite catch. He moved to her and saw her belly, his jaw dropped at the sight of her, making her giggle. Joe had no idea she was pregnant until now; she didn't want to bother him while he was literally fighting for his life while she was growing one inside of her.

"Wow, I can't believe you two are having a baby! This is great, bro!"

Tressa shared a look with Jon, and she decided to let him break the news to Joe once they weren't around a bunch of people, simply hugging the Samoan back. "Thanks, good to have you back, Big Dog." Then, she left them to celebrate amongst themselves and headed back to her table, hoping Jon set the record straight with Joe before the end of the night.

Now, in all fairness to Jon, he TRIED. But getting Joe alone for two seconds was fucking impossible and then he had gotten dragged away for work. Jon groaned inwardly, knowing he would catch his friend at the end of the night and set everything right then. It wasn't like Joe was the kind of person to go running around backstage spouting gossip. He'd get to it, eventually. Joe wasn't going to be bothered all damn night, right?

"Package for you, ma'am." A courier appeared at Tressa's side, holding out a small manila envelope. He waited until she signed before taking off. That was the weirdest package ever.

Inside was a small white handkerchief with his initials and a piece of dried Heather pressed in the material's folds.

She smiled at the dried Heather and could still smell the aroma, the handkerchief made out of silk. She slid her fingertips over the initials and held it up to her nose briefly before carefully putting it back into the manila envelope. It was Drew's way of telling her he was thinking about her and it made her heart soar to the heavens. She placed it in her purse, making sure it wasn't smashed or damaged, and took a sip out of her pineapple smoothie. That wasn't the first gift Drew sent her over the past couple of weeks, ever since they decided to give them a shot. Currently, she had a beautiful silver Celtic cross around her neck Drew had gifted her shortly after they became a couple. She wore it every day and night, only removing it when she showered because she didn't want to ruin it.

This one was a bit different from the other gifts, not that she would know that. Technically, if they had been doing this 'properly', it would have been something he would have given her on day one. Providing he had been inclined to showcase some of his heritage. Usually, he didn't bother because most women tended to think of him in terms of his accent and whatever they had 'learned' out of historical romance novels. Tressa was genuinely interested in his Scottish background and he had realized it went a bit further than their baby being half-Scottish. She wanted to know not just for the bairn, but also because she was interested in him.

She wanted to soak in as much of his Scottish heritage, to truly learn about it, as she could. It wasn't just because of Drew. The baby needed to know where he or she came from, their heritage and who exactly their father and family were. Tressa didn't know what the handkerchief signified, but she would find out once they saw each other later that night. They didn't leave the arena together, but they did share hotel rooms. Drew enjoyed driving with some of his other friends in the company and she didn't mind that, knowing they didn't have to spend every waking minute together. At the end of the night, they were in bed together and that was all that mattered to her.

"So," Jon caught up with her at the end of the night, before Tressa could pull her disappearing act. "I set things right with Joe. He knows now I'm not the father." He hadn't told Joe who it was, because it wasn't his place to reveal that information. Tressa would decide if Joe needed to know. "I think he was disappointed." He had his bag slung over his shoulder, fresh out of the shower, and ready to go make the big man have a few drinks to celebrate the good news. "He had this whole Uncle Joe thing going, I almost felt bad at bursting his bubble."

"He can still be Uncle Joe, though, if he wants to." Just because Jon wasn't the father didn't mean they weren't still friends. She considered Joe and Colby brothers, practically. "I take it you're off to go have a few cold ones with the boys?" Tressa grinned at the genuine smile on Jon's face and stopped him, placing a hand on his arm. "Please don't go, Jon. You saw what the writers are doing – they're slowly erasing what happened to you these past few months. Joe's back now, you guys can reform the Shield and I know that's what you truly want. You want to be with your boys and I think the higher-ups are finally seeing that now that Joe is back. You know if you leave, you'll never have connections like you do here." Unless he was leaving for another reason he hadn't revealed.

"Did Vince put you up to that?" Jon asked, sounding resigned and not surprised. "You sound exactly like he did. Trust me, Kitten, I got connections." The problem with being the big dog in the yard, so to speak, was that with a lack of competition, business got stale and complacent. Without that fuel, that HAVE to do better driving things on, things became stagnant and it showed in the WWE. "I'm not staying, Tres. I shouldn't have to change my mind just because they decided to change theirs based on Joe being back." Which told him that they weren't invested in him, they were invested in Joe. No, he was good.

She frowned, looking up at him with big greys, and lowered her head, nodding reluctantly. "All right, Jon. I won't beg you again. I won't bring it up." Jon's mind really was made up if Joe's comeback couldn't even convince him to stay. "Go on. Go celebrate and drink one for me." He only had a few more months left to travel the roads with Joe and Tressa wanted him to soak every possible moment of it up. She leaned up and kissed his cheek, touching the side of his face before making her way to her rental vehicle.

Neither saw the dark eyes watching their exchange or the sad expression on Jon's face once Tressa turned her back to him. It was because of her that Jon was leaving and nobody would convince him otherwise. The only question was: Who WAS the father of Tressa's baby if it wasn't Jon?