A/N: Thanks to Eva and Guest for the reviews!
Mike is still stinging from the prior week- how badly the Rumble had gone, and feeling unfulfilled after the only slight payback he'd gotten against Antonio on the following Raw and Main Event, so when Alex hands him his phone and he sees the email in the younger man's inbox that matches his down to the final word, confirming that they're not scheduled for anything on the week's Smackdown, he smirks. "Well, what do you say? Wanna go harrass Morrison some more?"
"Hell yeah!" So that's what they do, driving right past the Smackdown arena to hit the freeway to Mike and John's homecity. It takes some time just to locate him- the beach, his apartment, even his favorite frozen yogurt stand a few blocks from his home all lacking the man's undeniable presence. "I feel like all we've been doing is skipping from one home state to the other," Alex comments inanely as they wander the sidewalks looking for some place where he could be at.
Mike glances over at him, grinning. "Oh yeah, we're going back to Florida next week, aren't we? You gonna let me crash at your place again?"
"Of course!" he responds, his lips twitching upwards into a smile just as he looks into the outer glass wall showing the interior of a gym they're walking by. "Hey there he is!" Mike stops short and joins him at the window, watching as John works at his ridiculous cardio regimen, lost in his own world and not even sensing their gazes on him. "I'll admit," Alex mumbles, his amusement fading away as they watch the former Superstar. "It feels kind of weird when it's just you and I alone in Florida. Not that it isn't fun, of course it is, it's just when we're here in California, we either spend all of our free time at your house or his apartment. But in Florida, well... I can count on one hand the times he's stayed at my house. It makes me feel bad having to exclude him from that. You know what I mean?"
"Of course I do," he sighs, clapping a hand on Alex's back. "He understands that we can't help it, but I feel pretty crummy too. Especially when we're talking and I'm suddenly off on some tangent about some random nothing in the business that he and I used to both find obnoxious, just to remember that he'd probably give about anything to have to endure that alongside us again. It's awkward and it's uncomfortable and I hate it."
"I know it ended badly," Alex says after a minute, "but no matter what, I do understand why you attempted to work AJ to get him his job back."
"If only it'd worked," he sighs. "Well, let's stop being depressed out here and go annoy him, that always cheers me up."
Alex chuckles and follows him inside, stepping aside as Mike greets Morrison by asking loudly if he needs spotted. John's reaction is as expected- an amused roll of the eye and a quick hug that Alex gets in on, none of them caring who might be around watching.
A few hours later, they're just settling in to watch the end of Smackdown back at Mike's home, each with to-go containers of froyo, when Alex freezes in front of the TV. "Uh oh."
"What-oh?" Mike asks, trying to see around him.
"It's Ricardo," the youngest of the trio mumbles, quickly backtracking to sit between John and Mike to watch. Despite Del Rio's well meaning attempt to keep the ring announcer backstage since he's still recovering from the beatdown Big Show had given him five days prior, it all goes wrong when the much larger giant distracts Alberto after his match, his grip unforgiving and tight around Ricardo's collar as he begs and pleads, tears in his eyes.
They all watch in quiet discomfort as Big Show mocks Ricardo and threatens Del Rio before finally punching the ring announcer out for the second time in a week. Miz hisses out a curse as Alberto moves quickly, leaving his title belt behind as he rushes up the ramp to the back and through the halls to find his best friend. "Dammit!" he huffs, eyes narrowing as the Mexican aristocrat comes across the downed young man, unmoving and not responding in the slightest as trainers and other staff kneel down by him, trying to get him to wake up while Alberto looks for the on-call doctor, crazed the longer his friend doesn't answer him. When the screen goes dark, Smackdown ended for the week, Morrison finds Mike's remote and shuts it off, frowning over at his former tag partner. "If we'd been there..."
"You could've gotten attacked by Big Show as well," John comments, putting the remote down with a sigh.
"Or we could've kept him somewhere safe, where Show couldn't have found him," Mike mumbles, still staring at the black screen like his gaze could change the outcome of the show.
Despite Morrison and Alex's best efforts to keep him distracted, this continues to weigh on Mike's mind through the weekend up until he arrives at the Raw arena, Alex alongside him. They're in Atlanta now, a quick stop before they move on to Florida for the week's Smackdown, but he's focused on tonight. After everything from the past week, he's tired of feeling like he's being walked all over, and he's definitely over seeing people get trashed by cowards like the Big Show or The Shield or...
Alex has to move quickly to keep up with him, his dark eyes narrowed in worry as his former mentor storms through the halls until he arrives at the locker room. "Mike!" he exclaims, finally catching up to and gripping his best friend's arm, stopping him. "Hold on, man. Slamming around won't get you anywhere tonight. You have MizTV tonight with Paul Heyman, you have to-"
"Have to what?" he snaps back, spinning on Alex as his eyes flash angrily. "Be careful in case Brock Lesnar gets it in his head to start something with me? Let him. I'm sick of all of this, Alex."
Alex shakes his head. "Mike, come on. I know it sucks what's happened with Ricardo- and everything else- the past few weeks, but running blind into situations when you're not thinking straight-"
"I'm thinking fine," he grumbles, forcing his way into the locker room with only slightly more subdued movements compared to a moment ago. "I can defend myself. I'm not a 60-some year old man."
"I know you're not, but-" Alex sighs, shaking his head grimly. He can tell his words are going nowhere, and will continue to as Mike isn't even looking at him, his gaze locked on the monitor as they recap what had happened to Vince McMahon yet again. He knows there's not much he can do to sway the Most Must See Superstar when he's in one of these moods, the man's stubborn streak and denial of being just as human as the rest of them, capable of being injured, a bad combination no matter how you look at it.
So he's not surprised when he finds himself running through the halls later on in the show, trying to locate the trainer's office. If Alex had ever thought he'd be seeing things through another man's eyes, the last he'd have expected would be Alberto Del Rio's as he tries to find his recently knocked out best friend in what almost feels like a recreation of what they'd watched last Friday. As if his thoughts had brought the man out of the woodwork, he stops short before he runs into Del Rio himself, the two men hesitating as they stare at each other, Alex about to take off once more to continue looking.
"Are you looking for the trainer's office?" Alberto calls out to him before he can even take a step, his frantic eyes turning to the Mexican. "Follow me. I need to check on Ricardo anyhow." This situation growing more and more surreal by the moment, Alex swallows and follows him for a couple of minutes before they come to a stop outside of the very room he'd been looking for for what had started to feel like forever.
He goes in first, Alberto following behind him calmly. He blinks, finding Ricardo sitting uncomfortably on a nearby leather couch, his dark, troubled eyes locked on the cot across the room, and Alex follows his gaze, almost losing it when he catches sight of Mike sprawled out there, pale and bruised and still motionless. As Alberto moves over to Ricardo, talking lowly to him about contracts and Booker T, Alex blocks their conversation out as he slowly walks over to his friend. "Mike, hey. I'm here." He swallows heavily and gingerly touches the side of his friend's face, seeing where the edge of the chair had smacked into him. "God... Man... I told you. Why couldn't you just listen?"
No response comes and Alex shakes his head, closing his eyes as he sits down next to Mike, his hands interlaced against the side of the cot almost as if in a prayer. "Come on, man... Wake up..." It had been horrible, A-Ri unable to do anything but watch as Mike had tried again and again to get some offense against Brock, just to get thrown around, out of the ring, and have half of MizTV's set thrown at and on top of him, or himself thrown into it. When Brock had F5'd him into his own couch, it'd felt like Alex had lost the ability to breathe. Even if he hadn't been physically held in place with duct tape, it had felt like it as he stood in the middle of the locker room, watching on helplessly as his best friend had fought pointlessly against the much stronger monster that Paul Heyman and Vickie Guerrero had sicced once more upon the WWE as a whole.
He barely notices as Alberto prepares to leave, his dark eyes gazing around from the trainer to Alex himself before he pats Ricardo on the face, reminding him once more quietly to stay here where he's safe until Alberto comes back to take him on to Florida, where they'll relax at home until Smackdown. Ricardo's face falls as soon as his employer is gone, all forced signs of bravery leaving him as he stares at the closed door, probably dwelling on the danger Del Rio could be putting himself into. There's no doubt that he'll be going after Big Show again, reciprocation for what he'd done on Smackdown. Payback for the black eye only now fading from Ricardo's face, and everything else he'd suffered the week prior.
Alex is still sitting there, waiting patiently for some sign from Mike, when the office door slips open once more and everyone inside freezes, not sure what to expect. AJ Lee is standing there, her eyes wide against her pale skin, Big E. lingering behind her as she enters the room slowly. Her hand goes to her mouth as she catches sight of the downed Miz and she shakes her head, closing her eyes. As the door clicks shut behind her, Alex stands slowly and stares at her. "Where's Dolph?" he asks her pointedly and she shakes her head, appearing incapable of vocalizing her response. "Why are you here, AJ?" Although he had opened the girl's eyes to his friend's innocence on New Years, he's still hesitant towards her. Despite it all, she remains with Dolph and he's leery of her. Mike's been through enough...
But there's a look on her face as she sniffs and approaches the cot, her dark eyes heavy and filled with tears, that Alex recognizes. Sincere worry and regret and... Their eyes lock. "Please?" she asks, her voice cracking with emotion halfway through the word and he knows the battle's lost.
"I'll be right over there," he whispers to Mike, giving his hand one more squeeze before reluctantly leaving the chair behind and standing anxiously at the foot of the bed as she brushes past him and takes the seat, dragging it up as close to the head of the bed as she can get, leaning closer to run her fingers through his hair. Accepting that she seems to be in a halfway sane state of mind for once, he leaves her there and joins Ricardo on the couch, nodding at the ring announcer. He'd never dealt with the oft-abused man that much in the past, but Mike seems to like him and that's enough for him.
Big E. hasn't moved from his position by the door, arms crossed over his chest menacingly, and Alex wonders if he's supposed to be listening for Dolph Ziggler, yet again wondering how exactly AJ has so many guys wrapped around her finger to do her bidding. "Do you think he'll be ok?" Ricardo asks after a moment, brow furrowed as he looks over at the still unconcious man.
"Yeah. He's Miz. He'll be fine," Alex says, unable to believe anything else. "His stubbornness has to be good for something, right?" At Ricardo's uncertain nod, A-Ri smiles faintly. "Del Rio will be fine too."
"You think so?" he asks, eyes shining with fresh worry as he once more glances at the door, obviously desperate to know what's going on with his employer.
"Yeah, man. I really do." Alex smiles sadly at him and pats his back, when...
"AJ?" a familiar voice whispers, cutting through the quiet air like a knife, Alex's head whipping up in time to see Mike's eyes blink open as his hand reaches out for her, each movement painful and slow.
As she laughs tearfully and strokes her hands down his face, whispering softly to him, Alex sinks into the couch cushions in relief. "See," he tells Ricardo lowly. "Everything'll be fine. Del Rio will come back in one piece, and I'll get Miz out of here and the four of us will just... go home and forget this week ever happened."
Ricardo nods absently, watching as finally the monitor shows Big Show's hotel room for the third time that night. His tension grows rapidly as Big Show signs the contract, then opens the door to Del Rio in the hallway, and their fight goes pretty badly for the Mexican aristocrat, the much larger man taking the small space to his advantage until finally Del Rio gets the upperhand when Show tries and fails at attacking him with a table leg. Finally Alberto downs him with a fire extinguisher to the skull, excusing away what had happened to people who'd witnessed the tail end of their fight before getting into the elevator and leaving.
AJ is still talking lowly to Miz, their hands linked the entire time, when Del Rio returns around ten minutes later, his gaze going suspiciously from Alex to Big E., before resting on Ricardo. "Amigo," he greets his ring announcer, sounding as relieved as Ricardo looks at the sight of him. "Are you ready to get out of here?"
"Si," he nods, standing slowly and walking over to his friend. "Are you ok?" His hand hesitantly reaches up to brush against Del Rio's forehead, since he'd seen him check there in the hotel hallway.
"I'm fine. Come, let's go. Home sounds nice, si?" Once they leave, Alex glances over at AJ and Mike, standing reluctantly as she whispers to him, her expression taking a complete 180 from how she'd looked when he'd first seen her.
He approaches the cot, trying not to worry as Big E tenses warningly behind him. "Um, AJ, the show's about to end. You... might want to go before Dolph starts to get worried."
Her eyes flash angrily as she looks up at him, unhappy at the disruption, but when Mike squeezes her hand, she seems to crash back to reality. "Oh. Right." It looks like it pains them both as she slips her hands free from Mike's, but she immediately resumes running her hands through his hair a few more times, his eyes fluttering underneath her touch. All of her goodwill seems to drain as quickly as it'd come when she looks up at Alex, her lips pursed warningly. "Hey, you take good care of him or else. I know where you live." She smiles down at the injured superstar before flouncing past Alex and leaving the room, Big E. following closely.
He pauses, patting Mike's shoulder. "Um. She doesn't really, does she?" Miz laughs faintly, only adding to his inner turmoil. "Does she? ... I hate you," he mumbles when he still doesn't answer the question, just smirking tiredly up at him. "And yet I'm still going to take you back to my place and make sure you don't go picking more fights with guys I tell you not to... Hmph."
As he helps Mike slowly, gingerly stand off of the cot once the trainer tells them they can go, but to be very very cautious and keep an eye out for anything strange, all Alex can think about is the long conversation Mike and AJ had had. "Can I ask you something, Mike?"
"Sure," he groans as his body protests standing. "What... what is it?"
"How did your talk with AJ go?"
Mike tenses under his fingers before smiling wanly. "I'll tell you soon. Just... not right now, ok?
Somewhere between compassionate and worried, Alex nods. "Ok, Mike. Whenever you're up to it."
As they walk to the car, Alex supporting Mike every step of the way, the former NXT pro squeezes his arm. "Seriously, Alex, thanks. I know... I can be a pain... but you've always stayed by my side."
He smiles, trying not to dwell on what might be going on between AJ and Mike now. "You're welcome, Mike. I always will be right here, whenever you need me."