Chapter 3: Swing

Lover, lover on the fence
Bat your eyes, ball a fist
And swing, swing,
Before you leave.
Love, lover, tell me this
Passion over consequence,
When did the latter take the lead?
Just swing.
Open the gate to your apartment complex.
Did you forget, love, you're who called for me?
How long did you expect to keep me waiting?
How long before I'm just a memory?

If there's one thing that is true about Cody, and always has been, it's that he is a damn good friend, and when it comes to the people he loves, there isn't much he wouldn't do to try and support them in their time of need. Which explains how he has ended up at a local bar with Max on, of all things, karaoke night. He knows good and well that Max is depressed when the younger man's insults to the karaoke singers who've performed so far are half-hearted at best. He seems far more interested in getting as much booze as possible into him as quickly as the bartender can get it to him.

Cody isn't trying to encourage Max to drink his weight in tequila (which starts out in the form of very salty margaritas, but quickly devolves into shots), but he figures, if there has to be a good bender, at least it will be with him as the built in designated driver and designated person to make sure Max doesn't make a fool of himself in a way that can't be easily explained away by pain meds or something. There are things you just do for people, and despite everything that has happened, being there for a friend in the middle of perhaps the most painful experience of his life is something Cody takes very seriously.

And for the first part of the night, that has worked out pretty well. Cody nurses a soda while Max takes shot after shot. There is a part of the older man wondering if he's made a grave mistake. It's a time honored tradition to take your friend out and buy him drinks when something goes wrong in his life. Especially something that seems to have shaken Max so fundamentally. Cody isn't stupid. He knows that there is a lot more to this story than what he's seen going down on TV. Max still hasn't talked about it much, but the emotion in his reaction is very different than even Cody's had been when Max had betrayed him.

It's something heavier. Something deeper and more painful, and Cody can't say with certainty, but there is very little doubt in his mind that a lot more of Max's heart had been involved with Adam Cole than just his head and his career. Being betrayed by someone who is a big part of your career is one thing. Being betrayed by someone you love is another thing entirely.

The bartender tonight is a guy Cody knows pretty well. This is a local bar where people don't usually come in looking for wrestlers, and for that reason, Cody likes coming here. Before Libby, he and Brandi had come here a lot for a night out – a couple of drinks, good music. Most folks don't recognize him unless they actually know him, and he likes that. Once in a while, people will show up and act like idiots, but usually, they stay pretty chill.

That is, of course, not when the bar is trying out a new karaoke night that seems to have brought in a lot of people who aren't part of the usual crowd. Cody's head is on a swivel for two reasons – one, because this many people make him a little more nervous about being out in a public place with a fragile Max, and two, because Max's alcohol intake is way above the limits of not doing anything stupid.

Apparently, however, it isn't above the limits of being a sneaky little shit. Because in the two minutes where Cody gets up to go to the bathroom, and comes back, Max is over at the karaoke table signing up to sing a song.

Honestly, though? Cody finds that encouraging. Max has always loved to sing, and he is pretty good at it, too, in that crooner style of the Rat Pack. So what if he drunk karaokes "New York, New York" or something like that. It will probably do him a bit of good to do something he can still be good at, even with the current state his body is in.

That is, until Max gets his turn on the mic, and the song that starts playing isn't a Rat Pack standard like Cody expects. He isn't sure he knows the song, but despite the slightly slurred quality of his words, Max makes the message pretty clear.

I'm going under and this time I fear there's no one to save me
This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy
I need somebody to heal
Somebody to know
Somebody to have
Somebody to hold
It's easy to say
But it's never the same
I guess I kinda liked the way you numbed all the pain

Cody hadn't seen this coming, but the people in the bar are all entranced by the former AEW World Champion's vocals. Slurred or not, the man can sing. As long as he's doing that, at least Cody knows for sure exactly where he is and what he's doing.

Now the day bleeds
Into nightfall
And you're not here
To get me through it all
I let my guard down
And then you pulled the rug
I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

And there it is…

Max is absolutely going to hate himself for this in the morning. But for right now, there's nothing in his head to stop him from belting the next verse. "I'm going under and this time I fear there's no one to turn to. This all or nothing way of loving got me sleeping without you…" There is no doubt that, sober, Max wouldn't be singing this song, but here he is, drunkenly slurring and trying not to cry. He doesn't even like this kind of music, but the words have been stuck in his head since the night of World's End.

It's easy to say but it's never the same
I guess I kinda liked the way you helped me escape

He remembers so many times with Adam… curled up on the couch together watching movies, cuddled up in bed with Piper between them like a real actual couple. Out to dinner for the first time, and laughing hysterically at how Adam somehow ends up with marinara on the tip of his nose while eating spaghetti. Absolutely refusing to do the Lady and the Tramp thing despite Adam's insistence it would be the best thing ever.

He hates himself for trusting a pair of bright blue eyes and a smile that seemed to heal something inside him every time it turned his way. He hates himself for the way he still thinks about how good it would feel to press his head into Adam's shoulder and be held close to the other man's side. He hates himself for the way he let this man into his home, his life, his heart and soul. And most of all, he hates himself for the way his hatred for Adam is still tempered by love – still runs with the undercurrent of the love that had gotten him into this mess in the first place.

And I tend to close my eyes when it hurts sometimes
I fall into your arms
I'll be safe in your sound 'til I come back around

The memories are just too fucking much… the first time Adam kissed him. The first time Max had run his fingers through Adam's long, dark hair. Why did he give this man so many first times that would haunt him for the rest of his life? Why can't he just Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind this shit and make it go away? That definitely worked in that movie right? He doesn't remember. He fell asleep about halfway through when his sisters had insisted it was a must-watch flick back in the day. Right now, he wishes he'd paid better attention… wishes he knew how it all ended for Jim Carrey.

By the time the chorus comes back in, Max isn't doing so great with the singing anymore. His voice has broken, and so has he, and he's grateful when Cody rushes to the stage, throws his arm around Max's shoulder and takes the mic from him. "Come on, buddy," he says softly to Max. "I think that's our cue to go."

Max turns his face into Cody's side and begs God not to let him cry, but it's so close already, and the way Cody's arm tightens around him in a comforting assurance is the end of it. With the mic in his hand, Cody diffuses the situation with a promise of, "You've all been such a great audience for my friend here tonight, I've asked the bartender to give everybody a round of whatever they're drinking tonight on me. So… you folks enjoy your evening!"

His arm firm around Max, Cody hands off the mic to the guy running the karaoke equipment, and directs Max out the door and to the car. "Come on, buddy," he tells him, his voice gentle and caring. "Let's get you back to the house and settled in for the night. You're gonna need all the rest you can get for the hangover you're gonna have in the morning."

Max tries to thank Cody, but he's stumbling over his words, and his thoughts, and everything in between. So when they make it back to Cody's house, and Cody walks Max inside, the younger man leans into his former mentor's embrace and makes it to the guest room where he's been staying. Cody gets Max out of his shoes and his a-little-too-expensive tie and is about to switch off the light when Max's voice breaks the silence again. "Cody?" he asks. "Don't tell anybody what a fucking idiot I was tonight, okay?"

Cody sighs. "I won't say a word. Now please, Max… get some sleep. We can talk more in the morning."

It isn't lost on him, though, how Max has taken one of his pillows and has clutched it to his chest so that it looks like he's the big spoon to the pillow's little spoon. It would actually be kinda sweet if not for the way it breaks his heart. "Thanks, Cody," Max murmurs again, before his words disappear into snores.

Cody walks out of the room quietly once he feels safe that Max isn't going to wake up. Max is going to need him even more once that hangover hits in the morning. Cody might as well rest while he can, because in the morning, he's going to need every ounce of energy he's got. "Night, kid," he whispers to Max's sleeping form as he closes the door behind him.