A/N: Thanks to Eva for the reviews. Hope you continue to enjoy!
After arriving in Florida, John and Mike spend the day with Alex, helping him with rehab and just getting around his house, which gets easier by the day but is still obviously a cause of some pain to him. It sucks to watch the young man struggle but Mike's glad to be around to help, even if it's just for a few hours before he has to go back to his life, return to the WWE ring to commentate Main Event for the second week in a row. It also proves to him that there is some improvement in Alex's condition since the last time he'd seen him right after the surgeries.
Being around his two best friends also helps to distract him from the humilation he's still feeling from Monday, how low he had felt after the segment with Larry King and his wife. Not that it was all AJ Lee's fault, she had no idea how it would go when she'd set aside time for it, but he can't stop almost feeling betrayed. Which makes no sense, he's simply using the girl to get what he wants from the business, but...
He catches a glimpse of her that Wednesday, lurking around in the back to oversee how things go, Booker T also hanging around, but he keeps his distance, honestly not wanting to even get into it with her here, now. Knowing if he did so, he'd probably say something he regrets.
She was supposed to be better than Laurinaitis, he thinks grimly. Better than the Anon GM... better than all before her. She was supposed to help me. What the hell happened?
By the time the show begins, he somehow manages to put it out of his head and enjoy himself calling the Big Show vs Orton match. It's only when Kofi Kingston vs Michael McGillicutty begins that he grows more tense, keeping a close eye on the man who had been a part of his birthday humiliation. When the match concludes, he joins the West Ghana native in the ring and they exchange barbs for awhile. When Kofi challenges him to a match for the Intercontinental title next week on Main Event, he doesn't know whether to laugh or just Skullcrushing Finale him right then and there.
Unfortunately it ends with him staring up at the lights, Kofi standing proud overhead, after hitting a boom drop on him. He winces away from the visual of Kofi holding onto his title belt and struggles to his feet once his opponent is gone, disgusted with himself and the situation. Stumbling backstage, he immediately focuses on polishing his title belt and perhaps disinfecting it too, not even wanting to see one of Kofi's fingerprints on the gold plates or white leather straps.
He holds his breath as he walks by AJ, unsurprised when she looks up from the clipboard she's holding onto. "Mike-" she calls out to him.
He hesitates only briefly, turning to stare at her. "Don't. Trust me, you do not want to talk to me right now. I'm not in the right mindset to even look at you." He storms off, needing a chance to clear his head, gain control of his temper before having to listen to the usual excuses from her.
She tilts her head, a sad gleam in her dark eyes as she watches him go, pausing only long enough to brush tears from her face before she turns and walks off, struggling to hold herself tall, not wanting to show weakness to the people always around looking for cracks in her wavering control.
Mike's mood isn't much better by Friday, only worsened by his being reminded every so often due to various recaps and things posted by WWE's twitter account about what had happened on Main Event, so he opts to do commentary on Smackdown during Kofi's match- against Big Show, no less. Mike smirks as he sits at the table and watches his opponent get manhandled by the much larger man, entering the ring once the match is over and standing over Kofi, title belt held high. You think tonight was bad, just wait until Wednesday, he thinks viciously, sneering down at his barely responsive opponent.
Making his way to the back, he wanders the halls for a bit before leaving the arena, seeing no need to hang around. What, and see more of Kane and Daniel Bryan arguing over their tag titles? He shakes his head, relieved yet again that he'd distanced himself from his former NXT rookie as quickly as he had.
He knows that he needs to think some things through- like the AJ Lee situation, and everything else going on with his career right now, but he opts instead just to go to bed, get his standard few hours of sleep before the next flight out. He's just sank into the sheets when his phone lights up the room due to a tweet from John- which ends up being a picture of him and Masters in Mexico, and he taps his finger against the screen for a moment before rolling over, closing his eyes tightly.
Truth be told, he doesn't remember a lot about Raw this week. The memories are faded, barely something he can grasp, like a bad dream slowly disappearing from his mind before he can even try to analyze it. He thinks he had another Miz TV segment, but it could be a false memory of one of the other previously horrible editions of his talk show, they all seem to end at his disadvantage... He does remember feeling a sharp, intense pain between his eyes before things go dark, but other than that- nothing. When he comes to, the trainer is talking lowly to someone and there's a bright light in his eyes that only adds to his agony. He wants to turn his head but he's afraid that it'll only make him feel even worse, maybe inspire the dizziness he's feeling to turn into something much worse. He licks his lips, waiting until the buzzing in his head eases enough for him to understand what's going on around him.
Nothing gets better, his breaths coming out in desperate pants, until finally he hears a female voice nearby. Even through the unstoppable noise rattling around his skull, he recognizes it. "A...J?"
She's by his side in a second, hand resting on his arm. "I'm here, Mike. You're going to be just fine." She adjusts something on the bridge of his nose and smiles, smoothly reaching over to click the lamp nearby off, the light immediately dimming to a much more bearable level. "Alright?"
"My title," he breathes faintly, fingers twitching against his chest. She disappears from his sight for a moment before resting something heavy and cool against his hand, his fingers immediately curling around the reassuring weight. "Thank you," he sighs, eyes fluttering closed.
She remains, watching him rest for a moment, before whispering into his ear, "Mike?" When he hums, deep blue eyes opening once more, her expression softens. "Do you have someone to take you back to the hotel?"
He releases a hissed breath, grimacing. "No." Harsh truth, scarily easy to vocalize when his brain is this scrambled... "Alex is injured... John is... long gone... I'm all alone," he admits, turning his head slowly to look at her. "Maybe I'll just stay here tonight." Her lips quirk and he thinks briefly that she's going to laugh at him, his head hurting too much for him to even feel angry at the prospect.
"No, you're not," she tells him calmly. "You're not alone, and you're not staying here tonight." She looks across at the trainer and nods at him. "Let him stay here until the show is over and I wrap up some business, and I'll make sure he gets back to his room safely."
The trainer nods, resting a hand on Mike's arm to gain his attention. "While you wait," he tells him, "I want to evaluate you to make sure there's no signs of a concussion. We'll have to examine you tomorrow as well, but as long as things come back clear tonight, I'll release you into Ms. Lee's hands."
"You don't have to," he tells AJ faintly, barely noticing as the trainer prepares the things he'll need for said exam.
She smiles at him, waves it off. "Of course I do. You're one of my best superstars, I have to make sure you get back to your room safely, right?"
"I was awful to you last week," he says quietly. "For weeks, really." His eyes feeling heavier by the second, he lifts a hand and brushes against her arm until she wraps her fingers around it, holding on securely as he drifts. "I'm sorry." Her touch shifts to rest against his forehead as she warmly strokes his hair, murmuring to him so softly that he barely catches half of it.
When the trainer begins to evaluate him, she's gone and he can hear Vince distantly from a monitor in the hallway while the contract signing wraps up, Punk's new opponent being announced as Ryback. He sneers just to wince as the trainer chastises him for moving while he's putting sutures in the gash along his brow.
How exactly AJ Lee, all 100 pounds of her, is supposed to get Mike to his rental car and then to the hotel room, he's not sure, but she somehow manages it. The chilly October air wakes him up enough that he can take most of his own weight but she still remains by his side, supporting him with one of his arms wrapped around her shoulders as they walk slowly through the dark parking lot. "What about your rental?" he asks her, eyes fluttering as she eases him into the car, making sure all of him is securely in the passenger's side before shutting the door.
"One of the perks of being the boss," she says with a grin, winking at him before putting the car into drive. "One of the techs will be driving it back to the hotel. Don't worry."
He thinks if he'd been in full control of his mental capacities that worrying would be exactly what he would be doing, especially with her behind the wheel of his rental, but he's in so much pain, the sutures tugging annoyingly every time he does anything from blinking to taking a deep breath, that he thinks he wouldn't even think second guess letting Hornswoggle drive, if it just meant that he'd get to lay down and make his surroundings stop spinning for five minutes.
Once they've made it through the hotel lobby and to the elevator, she smiles over at him as he continues to cling to the Intercontinental title, bracing his weight on the cool silver bar on the back wall. "You're really proud of owning that belt, aren't you?"
He nods, regretting it as his vision spots for a moment. "Ye-yeah," he mutters, relieved when she supports him once more as he wavers, the weightlessness of the elevator as it glides up through the hotel floors only adding to his disorientation. His eyes heavy with some emotion she can't figure out, he stares down at her. "What happens if this injury causes me to lose it to Kingston?"
She stays quiet, her fingers tightening around his midsection as the elevator's beeping grows louder, Miz's floor nearing. "I don't know what you mean."
"If... if I lose, will you..." He takes a deep breath, well aware that it's just the pain that's making him off-balanced, the brief fear that he'd felt when the kick had landed and he'd regained consciousness in the trainer's office that he'd been seriously injured, but he can't stop the words pouring from his mouth. "Will you begin to ignore me like Laurinaitis? Will..." He takes a breath. "Will you start to conspire against me, like the Anon GM?"
The elevator doors opening at that moment keep her from answering, her hold on him tightening as she guides him into the carpetted hallway, staying quiet as he fumbles for his room key. Taking it gently from his trembling hands, she unlocks the room and leads him inside, leaving the door open a bit, the light from the hallway guiding their path as she assists him to the bed, making sure he's safely settled in the sheets and comforter before finding the light switch, flooding the room in a soft yellow light and pushing the door shut. He's half asleep just in the short amount of time it takes her to rejoin him and she sighs, brushing her fingers through his hair once more. "It may seem like I've forgotten what you asked me to do," she tells him quietly. "But I haven't. I'll talk to the board again. I promise."
Kicking her sneakers off, she stretches out onto the bed next to him and stares at the ceiling. She's far from tired, tempted to go look at a 24/7 gas station they'd passed on their way here, but he looks so vulnerable in this moment, his skin pale around the strips from the sutures. The trainer had also asked her to keep an eye on him, explaining that even though the neurological tests he had done came back clear these things could be sneaky and he didn't want him alone. Rolling onto her side, she watches him breathe deeply for a few minutes, her lips twitching upwards fondly. "Just rest, Mike. Everything'll be ok. I promise."