After a weekend of watching football with Alberto, Ricardo returns to the dojo. He won't be competing at the events the following week, because he has his own events scheduled in northern California, but he can help the people prepare for their own upcoming matches, learn new strategies and moves. Money in the Bank is Sunday, with Paige getting another opportunity at the Divas title, and he hopes it goes well for her. For this reason alone, he watches Raw early Tuesday morning just to find that Paige doesn't compete. She is merely shown watching backstage as Nikki wrestles, and beats, Summer Rae.
He sighs and settles in, glad that it's early enough in the morning that Alberto is still asleep and Sofia is quiet in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. He doesn't watch Raw all that often anymore, just enough to keep up with Miz and Paige, and even then it's enough to see that things hadn't changed that much since he'd left. If anything, they'd gotten even worse with The Authority running roughshod over everything. Turning it off, he deletes it from the DVR and goes back to his room to get ready for his day. Errands and lunch with Alberto, then he's off to the dojo for a few hours of training. They stay late, till almost midnight, and by the time he leaves, he's hunger and tired, eager to collapse into bed and not move for a few hours.
Paige has a full week herself, with the Money in the Bank match, and an appearance at Wizard World. He's just laid down in bed when she explains that she's also been booked to compete on Superstars. He makes a note to try to watch it when he has a chance but she sounds as wiped out as he feels. "I'll call you tomorrow, mi fuerza," he offers.
She yawns lazily. "Alright, love. We'll talk soon. Good night."
"Buenos noches," he says, hanging up. He's just shifted against his pillows, trying to get comfortable, when something dawns on him, making him sit up. If we barely get to see each other now with our schedules as rough as they are already, how bad are things going to get when Tough Enough begins? He grimaces and punches at his pillow. "Ay, dammit, why do I always think about these things right before bed?" Pressing the pillow over his head, he groans.
Early Thursday is spent preparing for the weekend in California. Northern California is too far away for him to be staying with Mike, which actually is fine with him because it lessens his chances of running into Morrison. Morrison who had changed, become more brutal in the matches Ricardo had seen on Lucha Underground since he'd put Alberto through the window of Dario's office. It's weird to think of the calm, zen man who was so apologetic after Ricardo split his shins all of those years ago during parkour being this cold and cruel, vicious and calculating but here we are.
That evening, he drops by Alex and Alicia's and smiles at his former home before letting himself in. "Hola," he greets Alex companionably. Although what Alex had tweeted had clearly hurt Mike's feelings, Ricardo hadn't held it against him. He had enough drama between Alberto and John to contend with, after all.
Alex's eyes light up when he sees him and he gets to his feet awkwardly, hopping over to Ricardo to give him a quick one-armed hug, the other still gripping his crutch tightly. "Thanks for coming over. Feels like it's been forever since we were able to just sit and catch up, huh?"
Ricardo nods, helping him back to the couch to sit down. "It definitely does." He hesitates, looking down at Alex's wrapped leg. "How's rehab going?"
"Slow," Alex sighs. "I was hoping I'd be further by now... but you know, gotta take it a day at a time." He grimaces and wipes a hand over his face. "The physical therapist gave me this list of exercises to do at home, but with Alicia gone so much, I can only do some of them... since I'm supposed to have someone with me for a lot of them."
Ricardo scans the paper before looking up at him. "I know I'm not always around, but my schedule is better than Alicia's... why not call me when you want to do these? It'll at least help you to do them more often, until you progress past this part of your rehab."
Alex stares at him. "You'd do that for me?" When Ricardo looks confused, he releases a breath. "I kinda figured a lot of the group washed their hands of me after what I said about AJ. Mike went off to film that movie, John's busy with Lucha Underground, and I just haven't heard from anyone. I was starting to think my side of the wedding was going to be empty."
Ricardo gapes at him before laughing painfully, gripping the back of Alex's neck and pulling him in until they're eye to eye. "You are a lunatic," he tells him. "Even if Mike was angry enough to want to kick your ass a little, he wouldn't leave you high and dry on one of the biggest days of your life. None of us would. We're all going to be there for you and Alicia. Me, Paige, AJ, Mike, John, Star, Tamina... you should just try to keep us away." He smiles at Alex before turning back to the sheet of paper. "So, while we wait for Smackdown to come on to see our better halves, why don't we order something to eat, and then I'll look through these exercises, see how many we can do before the delivery person gets here?"
Alex stares at him for a moment before smiling. "Alright. Thank you, Ricardo." They're in the process of splitting Chilaquiles Verdes and fajitas, Ricardo pausing between bites to help stretch Alex's leg out as the examples on the sheet of paper shows, when they both pause and look over at the TV, Smackdown blaring on as background noise. "Oh hell no."
Ricardo swallows hard, shaking his head when Alicia starts to yell at Paige for speaking for her, that she doesn't need anyone to do so, and will prove it later on that night in the ring. The two men stare at each other, then groan aloud. Ricardo gives up on physical therapy for tonight and joins Alex on the couch, pulling the last fajita to himself. "Ay dios mio," he sighs tiredly.
The show drags on for over an hour more until finally their girlfriends head to the ring, preparing for their match. Alicia is vicious and Paige is exasperated, all of the work they'd done to at least be civil apparently going down the drain with Paige's promo the week before. The two men sit side by side, quiet and watchful as Alicia wails on Paige for awhile, it seeming to take forever for the younger woman to take back control. But when she does, she doesn't relinquish it again, quickly tapping Alicia out to the PTO. Ricardo releases a breath of relief, but Alex looks disappointed and worried for Alicia.
Choosing to give him a minute, Ricardo gets up and starts clearing off the boxes and paper plates from their meals, relieved that he doesn't have to do dishes and prolong the tense silence, or risk Alex thinking he's ignoring him. Finishing with dumping everything in the trash, he walks back into the living room. "Well, um, unless you want to continue attempting the exercises, I have to fly out to California tomorrow, so..."
Alex immediately hops up to his feet, gripping his crutch. "No, that's ok, man. Thanks so much for coming over. We definitely need to do it again some day soon." He hugs him again, but this time it's tense, ends faster and he laughs anxiously, trying to cover up the awkward moment. "Hopefully next time, Paige and Alicia won't start arguing, huh?"
Ricardo laughs and pats his arm. "Yeah... well, I'll see you soon, Alex. I'll be calling you to make sure you do, but really, take care of yourself."
Alex smiles at him. "Will do, if you do the same."
"That's the plan, amigo." They head slowly to the door, the only sound being the crutch on the floor and Alex's strained breaths as he sees Ricardo out. Once the door shuts behind him, Ricardo leans against the wall for a moment and releases a sigh, shaking his head at the complicate world they're all in because of the business. Even so, he loves it and wouldn't change a thing.
Ricardo barely sleeps that night, thinking that it doesn't matter. He'll sleep on the plane, which gives him more time to get things together for the next few days, which is a relief. Upon hearing that Ricardo will be a good six hours away from Los Angeles the next morning, Alberto seems to relax as well, patting Ricardo's face before they say their farewells at the airport gate. "Good luck this weekend, mi hermano. I have no doubt you'll do just fine."
"Gracias." He grins. "Enjoy your weekend off, si?" The following weekend, they would be heading to the east coast for a convention and Ricardo looks forward to working alongside him once more, but he more than understands why Alberto is looking forward to a couple of days to do nothing more stenuous than take one of his babies out for a drive..
"Si, I will," Alberto promises. "Take care of yourself."
"And you too," Ricardo tells him. "And of Sofia."
"Always." Alberto beams at him, holding his arms out. Ricardo easily settles in his grip for a hug and Alberto ruffles his hair when he pulls away. "See you soon, mi hermanito."
"Si, see you Monday, El Patron." Ricardo smiles fondly at him before collecting his luggage and carrying on. Eager to sleep the flight away until he lands in his home state, to compete and reinforce what he can still do in the business despite the years of being underutilized.
Except that there are miserable, crying kids on the flight and he doesn't even get the chance to shut his eyes before one or both are wailing anew. Upon landing, he hadn't slept at all, which means he's been awake over 24 hours straight. Gritting his teeth at the thought of wrestling like this, he grabs his luggage from the carousel and heads for the door. "I'm getting too old for this," he grunts.