A/N: Sorry, I really did mean to have this up sooner, but a concert on Friday and other fic obligations kept me busy through the weekend. I finally finished it today, however, so here, hope you all enjoy!
Guest- thanks for the reviews. I'm glad you enjoy BtB. I update it every Wednesday night/Thursday morning.
High heeled feet tap against cool tile floors as dark eyes stare ahead blankly, their owner listening to her friend's cries of pain in the other room, her lips pursed together as she grits her teeth, trying not to completely lose it, aware that it'll do no one any good. "Oh, you'll pay," she finally whispers. "I'll make sure you all pay..."
Steeling herself, she pushes the door open and re-enters the room, trying to sooth and comfort her distressed friend, despite being clearly at the end of the rope herself. "They won't get away with this," she promises soberly, stroking hair out of the other woman's face so she can look at her fully. "Let me handle it all. You just recover. Everything will be fine..."
Months later...
AJ Lee wakes up with a soft sigh, stretching lazily in bed, a small smile forming over her lips as she takes in the soft sunlight pouring into the bedroom. She's still getting used to Miz's bedroom, it's so much larger than her old room in the New Jersey apartment that she only recently gave up to move to be with her husband. Of course, his being gone so often for WWE responsibilities makes it seem larger, more lonely, the whole house quiet. She sighs and sits up, untangling herself from the sheets before she shuffles out of the room, picking up an empty bottle of water and throwing it into Mike's recycle bin before entering the bathroom to brush her hair and teeth, get ready for her day.
She hums and cooks a quick breakfast of eggs and toast, kicking her heels against the legs of the chair she's sitting in as she eats, staring out at the beautiful LA weather. "Hmm," she sighs, rinsing off her plate before heading into the living room, staring at the stack of boxes full of her things waiting to be spread throughout the house. She'd already done a little but it's quite the job, emptying everything from her New Jersey life to begin anew in California. Especially considering she's alone, Mike off in Europe for the WWE tour over there. She shrugs and slits the closest box with a blade, smiling nostalgically as she stares down at the scattered items inside, brushing away the packing supplies used to keep them safe. She works in silence for awhile, organizing things by which room they should go into, before she realizes how much time had passed, standing to work some life back into her legs.
Turning a radio on before she goes back to work, she falls into a kind of rhythm with the music, smiling when songs that were used at their reception a couple of months earlier plays. Finding the box full of bathroom supplies, she begins stacking things up next to her, laughing quietly as she realizes Mike has more hair care supplies in his house right now than she'd owned her whole life. She's been through five boxes, placing more and more of her things in various rooms of the house before the soft sound of birds chirping and other nature outside overwhelms the music on the radio, distracting her from box six. She sighs, staring out the living room windows before huffing. "Well, fine then," she grumbles, lifting the box up and taking it outside with her, leaving the front door open.
It's gorgeous out and she smiles, sitting cross-legged in the grass as she resumes sifting through her things, still able to hear the radio from this distance. She enjoys the process more by finishing with one box, taking it and the contents inside long enough to organize her things among Mike's, and returning outside with the next. She's almost done a couple of hours later, amazed by how quickly things had moved once she stopped holing up inside, the beautiful weather helping her to focus on the job. She places the last box in the pile and moves into the kitchen, hungry again. She's searching the fridge and cupboards for something appetizing when her phone rings. "Hello?"
"Hey, sweetheart."
Her eyes light up. "Mike! Hi," she says quietly, forgetting her search for food as she returns to the living room and leans against the door frame, staring out at the street. "I miss you."
"I miss you too." She can hear the soft sound of British traffic behind him, resting her forehead against the cool wood as Mike tells her of what's happened so far on the tour, his voice captivating her as she wishes that she could look in his eyes as he tells her all of his latest adventures. They had been together so much during the month in Vancouver, to not even be in the same country as him now leaves her aching deep inside, but she would never deny him of such things, or ruin it for him. Once he runs out of words, he gives her a minute to digest his words. "So how are you doing, sweetheart? That house isn't too lonely without me, is it?"
She releases a soft breath and glances around, smile diminishing slightly. "Well, it's quiet and, yes, a little lonely, but I know you'll be back here with me soon, and I'm keeping myself busy. I've unpacked everything... and took over your entire closet, and cupboards, and dresser and-" His laughter makes her giggle, the words dying in her throat.
"Yeah, right!" he tells her. "I have more clothes and beauty supplies than you do."
Her giggles turn into full-on laughter. "I was thinking the same thing, actually. Your bathroom is something else," she teases him. "I'd think Zack Ryder lives here..."
"Ok, if you were sharing a house with Zack, we'd have serious problems," he teases her.
"Well, we were only living a stone's throw away from each other not that long ago," she muses, laughing when he pauses, clearly unsure what to think about that. "I'm kidding, Mike."
He releases a relieved breath that makes her smile. "Well, good, you better be! I don't want to have to kick Zack's ass. Now... if I have my time zones correct, it's lunch time over there, right?"
"Yeah," she nods, suddenly remembering how she'd been interrupted from finding something to eat. "You distracted me. You were always too good at that."
His smirk is audible when he speaks again, her heart lifting at the teasing tone of his voice. "Well, if that's my biggest crime, I'll gladly do it again and again if it makes you smile more."
"It does." She sighs. "I don't want to get off the phone."
"The sooner you do, the sooner you'll be able to eat and then go properly enjoy our house," he tells her. "Surrounded by all of our things... soak in a warm bubble bath, order something ridiculous for supper, go to the beach and remember our wedding... then call me before you fall asleep, and tomorrow when you wake up, we'll be one day closer to my being home."
She smiles. "Well, when you put it that way... I love you, Mike."
"I love you too. Bye, sweetheart."
"Bye." She hangs up and returns to the kitchen, deciding on egg salad sandwiches with potato chips. "Hm," she sighs, looking around. "Ok, where are my..." Wandering into the living room, she glances around until she finds a bottle of multi-vitamins that she'd only been recently recommended by one of the WWE doctors, bringing it with her to wait for the eggs to finish. Idly reading the label, she mutters over some of the words, grimacing at having to take them twice a day. "Well, if Doc says they're good, I guess I'll trust him." She puts the bottle back down and begins to prepare her meal, looking around at the kitchen. "As soon as Mike comes back, I'll be doing this for both of us..." She grins, her eyes shining as she considers cooking for them both while he sits behind her at the table, keeping her company with goofy jokes and silly stories, thanking her with soft touches and warm kisses. "I can't wait." Her afternoon passes in almost exactly the way Mike had suggested, AJ nice and relaxed as his voice on the phone is the last thing she hears as she closes her eyes, trying to cling to it and failing, falling into a deep sleep.
No matter how nicely she had fallen asleep the night before, however, the next day she wakes up the exact opposite, her body aching and head spinning. "Mike?" she calls out, disoriented and shaky. "Where- where...?" But as she sits up, the phone falls into her lap and she stares down at it, tears filling her eyes. "Right... Europe..." She sniffs and wipes at her face, trying to stand up... but promptly falling back into the sheets, a soft groan passing from her lips. "What's wrong with me..." A broken sob shakes her as she struggles to get onto the bed, her legs throbbing more while hanging half-off. "Please... Mike... come home soon... I need you." More tears pour down her face as she finally pulls herself up, curling up in the sheets as she shivers and tries not to throw up.
She's not sure how much time passes but when she opens her eyes again, it's shadowy in the room and her phone is buzzing desperately in her hand. Her head feels clearer, aches gone. "Mike," she breathes, staring down at the phone. "Mike?"
"AJ, are you ok?" He sounds tense, worried. "I kept calling, and you weren't- I thought something was..." His voice is shaking and she feels terrible.
"I'm fine, Mike. I just... came down with something, a 24 hour bug or something. I slept it off. I promise, I feel ok. I miss you though."
Mike pauses for a long moment. "Are you sure, sweetheart? If you're sick, John would-"
"No, no," AJ interrupts. "I promise, I'm fine. There's no need in dragging John into it, I know how busy he is. I'm good, I'm fine. If I start feeling sick again, I'll call a taxi to take me to the hospital... or if I'm really bad, I'll call 911. Don't worry."
He groans. "I'm going to worry, AJ. I'm overseas and you're sick, and... I don't know what to do..."
"You don't have to do anything, I'm fine," she tells him gently. "I swear to you, everything will be fine. You'll see, I promise."
"You better," he mutters, reluctantly letting this go and letting her change the topic onto lighter things, Europe and the pile of things she wants to donate. She's explaining all of her clothing that she never wears when he cuts in, "I love you more than anything, AJ."
"I'm sure some child could wear-" His words register with her, breaking her thoughts into nothing. Her lips twitch into an emotional smile. "I love you more than you do..."
He pauses and then barks out a laughter. "Hey, now." She laughs too and rests her hand on the phone, pretending that it's Mike's face or hand... "I wish you were here."
She smiles slightly, not thoroughly agreeing- she's enjoying her time away from WWE, despite how desperately she misses her husband, aching at the thought of him surrounded by all of the beauty and romance of Europe without her. "I wish I were there with you, too."
She eats some bland thing for supper that barely registers with her even as she's cooking, she stares blankly into the distance as she chokes it down. She considers a bath, but ultimately goes right to bed, hoping that whatever funk she's in will have gone by morning. But she realizes as soon as she wakes up that it's worse, everything around her looking faded and groggy. She walks like a zombie through the house and grimaces, it all melting together into an unimpressive blur in front of her. "What is wrong with me?"
A few days pass, more of the same. Food doesn't entice AJ, she can't find anything to keep her mind occupied, she can barely stand to answer the phone whenever Mike calls, everything just feels... wrong. Terrible. She taps her fingers against the kitchen table and wonders what had suddenly changed, why now it's all washing over her. She had been sad after her title loss, yeah, but it hadn't been like this. Of course then she'd had Mike by her side, holding her and kissing her, loving her and comforting her. But now she's all alone and she's crashing and burning... "It's all Mike's fault," she whispers. Repeats it louder and louder until she's all but screaming it, pounding her fists against the table hard enough to hurt. "Why would he leave me now?! Doesn't he know, doesn't he understand how... how hard it was for me to hold things together even when he was here? Without him... with- without him..."
She chokes and whimpers, pressing her face into the table. "Damn him, why is it so hard for everyone to just stay?! That's... all they need to do..." She collapses on top of the wood and whimpers, ignoring the phone as it rings and shakes next to her. "Shut up," she breathes. "Shut up, shut up, shut up..." It goes off again and she grabs it, throwing it hard across the room where it cracks against the wall and breaks into pieces, immediately doing as she'd requested. She sighs and closes her eyes, finding some meager comfort in the silence now surrounding her.
She's still laying there a few hours later when there's a knock on the door. She cringes and turns her head away from it, hoping that whoever it is will take the hint and leave, but it's clear who it is as a key grinds in the lock, opening the door effortlessly. She moans and hisses, "Don't..." as footsteps approach her, a hand resting on her shoulder. "Let go of me..."
"AJ?" John says, ignoring her slurred demands. "Mike called, said you were sick and asked me to check on you... What's wrong?"
Her eyes slam open suddenly and she stares up at him, wide eyed and looking in awe of him. "Do you really care?"
"Of course I do, you're my-" But his words die away in horror as she grips his face and pulls him in, kissing him desperately as she had so many other men before Mike. "What are you doing?" John chokes, fighting free of her. "You're married to my best friend, what the hell, AJ?!"
Her eyes immediately narrow. "You're lying, just like the others. You don't care about me. Let go! Let go of me!" Screaming and pounding her fists against him, she struggles to get free but he grips her tighter, not wanting her to hurt herself. "Let go!" Her screams drift away as he lifts her up and drags her upstairs, dropping her into bed. The more she struggles, the harder he tangles her up in the sheets until finally she can barely move, John pinning her wrists to her sides with a couple of Mike's ties that he knots around her midsection. "Stop," she pleads, tears pouring down her face when she realizes she's trapped in what feels like an impromptu straitjacket.
"It's for your own good," he tells her soberly. "I need to figure out what's going on. You need to stay here." She glowers up at him as he sighs and tries to adjust the pillows under her, make sure she's as comfortable as possible while he investigates. She tries to kick, her legs also tangled up in the sheets, and her wild, anguished screams follow him downstairs. He pulls his phone out and sighs heavily, dialing a number. "Hey, Ricardo? I need some help..."
One of the downfalls of living across the country from most of the WWE talent is that when something's needed that the phone or Internet can't help with, the only way is to wait. So John does just that, his mind racing a mile a minute while Ricardo takes a flight from Florida to California, exploring the house and piling together anything he thinks AJ might've come in contact with, hoping that somehow something holds answers. She had seemed... normal... since the engagement, and he doesn't think that Mike being so far away alone would cause it, knowing that he had done all he could to talk with her every free moment that he'd had. She had seemed fine the first week, to the best of John's knowledge, so this sudden change... it just adds to his suspicions.
He's just finished checking on AJ again, finding her sleeping restlessly, when he hears a knock at the front door. He races downstairs and answers, relieved to find Ricardo standing there. "Hey, man."
"Hey." He claps him on the arm as he steps aside to let him in. "What's going on, John?" Ricardo shrugs off his bag and rests it on the floor, surprised by the pile of medicine bottles, soap, shampoos, cleaners and a number of other things piled up on the coffee table in the living room. "Um..."
"AJ is losing it," he tells the former ring announcer. "She's... pale and ill-looking, her eyes are glassy, movements sluggish... I think... she's angry at Mike for leaving her and taking it out on... well." He touches his lips before shaking it off, moving onto the next thing. "It's not like it has been in the past when she's lost it, this just feels different somehow from what I've seen and heard."
"Great," Ricardo mutters with a frown, still staring at the pile on the table. "What is all of this then?"
"I think she's come in contact with something, I just can't tell what. Part of the reason why I called you here is to help me sort through it, and half of it is so I have someone to help me keep an eye on her while we figure out what to do. She's upstairs, asleep, but I'd be amazed if she stays there for much longer, so I need a second set of hands to keep her from hurting herself because I can't really keep her up there indefinitely..."
Ricardo nods, frowning. "Alright, let's see. Well, I don't know, most of this looks ordinary. We'd probably need to test it in a lab to know for sure, though."
"Right," he sighs, picking up pill bottles and, pouring some out into his palm, examining them with a grimace. "Well, the vitamins look normal, and the tylonel-"
"Wait, those aren't vitamins," Ricardo says, shaking his head as he reaches out for the bottle that John had just put down. "WWE's doctor gives these to all of us, so I take them too. They're supposed to be gelcaps, but these are just regular caplets. See?" He proves his words further by grabbing his own bag and finding his vitamin bottle inside. When he shakes some out into Morrison's palm, the difference is obvious: AJ's pills are white and circular while Ricardo's are brown and oval.
"Damn," he breathes. "What are these things?" He examines the bottle, which looks exactly like Ricardo's, even listing gelcaps. Both are still puzzling over this mystery when there's a loud thud upstairs, both of their faces looking up at the ceiling. "Go check on her, I'll make a couple of calls."
"Alright," Ricardo nods, heading upstairs to leave him to ponder in peace.
Morrison sighs, staring down at the bottles with determination to solve this, the disturbing feel of his best friend's wife's lips still on his, drowning him in betrayal and self-disgust. He's still rolling the white pills between his fingers when he hears shouting overhead, and another thud, even louder than before. "Ricardo," he mutters, scrambling to his feet and running upstairs. The hall is dark and quiet, adding to his foreboding. He pushes the bedroom door open, blinking when it stops midway, hitting something. He pales and peers around, just catching a glimpse of Ricardo's shoes. "Son of a ..." Thankfully he's just lean enough to fit inside, careful not to step on the downed man as he enters. "AJ!"
The girl jumps and turns towards him, eyes blown and frenzied as she holds a partially shattered vase in hand, glass scattered across the floor. "Mike left me, everyone leaves me," she chokes out. "I don't want anyone anymore, I want to be left alone! Leave me alone!" she screams at him, taking a wild swing and just missing as he ducks aside, gripping her arms and squeezing until she drops the weapon on the floor, more glass dancing this way and that. "No!"
"Stop it, stop," he orders, this time pinning her arms to her sides and holding on tightly so she can't do anything, the girl thankfully short enough that her feet dangle harmlessly as he lifts her in an attempt to keep her from escaping, Morrison careful to avoid her desperate kicks. Once she tires herself out, he kneels down by Ricardo, using one hand to check on him while holding onto her with the other. She's limp and seems devoid of fight, staring over at him as he leaves the former ring announcer there, now using his free hand to find his phone, dialing 911. He keeps a close eye on her but she doesn't even twitch while he talks with the operator, explaining the situation to her in a calm voice, not wanting to cause her anxiety.
"I don't know what's going on," she mutters when he's off of the phone, picking at her nails. "I want Mike..."
"I know you do," he says, once more checking on Ricardo. "Look, help's on its way, everything's going to be ok." She stares at him strangely for a long moment. "What?"
"Why are you helping me? I- I... I did..." She glances down at his lips, suddenly paling as tears fill her eyes, memories coming back to her as she glances down at Ricardo, more pieces of the puzzles connecting to make a terrible picture in her mind. "Oh no... Is he- is he...?"
"He's going to be ok," John tells her, helping her to her feet. "Come here." He leads her to the bed and watches as she sits down, her head bowed. "What can you tell me about these?" He holds out the bottle of vitamins, watching as she examines them through wet eyes.
"I, my vitamins? I don't know..."
"How long have you taken them?"
She thinks for a moment, blinking slowly. "Um, five days... I think..."
"Alright." He lays the bottle down and sits down next to her to wait for the EMTs.
"Is Mike going to be home soon?"
John looks over at her, pondering the question. He'd been weighing calling Mike, notifying him, though he's not sure it'd be the best thing to do when he still has a couple of days in Europe, at least until they have more things settled... "Yeah," he finally tells her. "He will." He gets up and kneels by Ricardo, relieved to see his eyes fluttering slightly as he stirs. "Ricardo?"
"John?" he slurs, trying to sit up. "Wha- what happened...?"
"Whoa, hang on," Morrison presses against his shoulderblades, keeping him down. "Don't move, ambulance is on its way for you and AJ." He glances over his shoulder at the girl as she continues to sit, slumped on the bed, unaware of what's going on around her. "Let's let the EMTs look you over first, alright?" He brushes some of the glass off of Ricardo's shirt, relieved when he nods gingerly. "Alright. It won't be long now. Just relax." He hates it but he hears the ambulance in the distance and he needs to make sure the front door is open, so he heads downstairs to do just that, returning upstairs as quickly as possible, relieved to find that AJ had remained where he'd left her.
Once the EMTs make it upstairs, things begin to move quickly and he breathes a little easier when things are taken out of his control. "Excuse me," he tells one of the men when they finish putting a slightly more alert Ricardo on a cot so he can get looked at at the emergency room. "These pills, I think they were tampered with and had to do with AJ's breakdown. She's been taking them for at least five days. Ricardo has the same bottle, but his pills look different."
The EMT looks a little skeptical but takes the bottle anyway, nodding. "We'll examine it at the hospital. Are you accompanying them to the hospital?"
"Uh, yeah," he says, looking from AJ to Ricardo. "Can I accompany Ricardo?"
"Fine." He returns to their patients, John following them when they go downstairs. AJ hasn't said a word since the group of people entered the room, and John almost changes his mind, but another quick glimpse of Ricardo's glassy eyes and pale skin and he sticks to his original idea, squeezing the younger man's hand when he groans at the jostling of the stretcher while being put into the ambulance.
It's late enough when they arrive that the hospital is quiet, the only sound that of nurses talking and wandering, TVs buzzing softly from the waiting room. AJ isn't kept in the ER long, quickly moved up to floor 3 for psychiatric observation once the staff hear the story, wanting to keep an eye on her until they can properly examine the pills John had given them to determine what they might've done to AJ's already shaky mental state. Ricardo is sleeping, the nurses planning on moving him to a different room for overnight observation to make sure he doesn't have a serious head injury, so John heads outside for some air, staring up into the night sky as he places another call. "Hey... Mike?" he says quietly, already dreading this phone call, but knowing that it needs to be made. "Can you get an earlier flight, by chance? AJ needs you..."
Things start moving quickly after Mike finds out- early the next day, a private lab contacts the hospital for a sample of the medicine AJ had been dosed with, encouraged by Del Rio's checkbook. The Mexican aristocrat had been notified of Ricardo's condition, his anger towards AJ shifting focus when the entire situation had been explained to him, although the Spanish John had overheard when he'd confirmed that Ricardo was diagnosed with a concussion severe enough they were keeping him for a day more had sounded pretty brutal, not that he blames him. Meanwhile, the hospital had tested AJ's blood, finding various anomalies in her levels when the results are finally delivered, which agree with the findings from the private lab that are delivered only an hour later, confirming that the pills in the vitamin bottle hadn't been vitamins but instead a dangerously high dosage of Lustral, an antidepressant which explains everything AJ had been feeling the last few days. John frowns as he listens to the medical jargon, sifting through what he can understand. "So what do you plan on doing to help her?"
"We could pump her stomach or give her activated charcoal, but right now she seems to be stable, her levels slowly stabilizing. We'll keep a close eye on her, and if things continue to stabilize, we'll just leave it at that, let nature take its course."
John cringes, nodding slightly as he wonders if Mike would make a different decision, wishing that he was here to at least comfort AJ in the aftermath. "Soon," he mutters to himself, going to check on Ricardo. He's still a little groggy but doing better than he had the night before. John sits with him and tries to do the math of how many more hours it'll be until Mike (and Alberto, who had refused to stay behind at the thought of his best friend hurting in some California hospital) arrives, probably a couple of hours into their flight already.
The time passes slowly, it's nearly the next morning when they do arrive and John sighs, relieved to see Mike staring at a nurse in annoyance as she takes her good sweet time paying attention to him when he leaves Ricardo's room. "Hey, Mike," he calls out, joining him and clapping his back. "She's up on the third floor, man. I'll take you." He nods at Del Rio. "Ricardo's in there," he tells him, directing him to the room he'd just left. Alberto mutters something before walking determinedly towards said room, leaving the former tag partners to walk side by side to the elevator to take them to AJ's floor, John relieved that Ricardo won't be left alone now. It had been hard, trying to divide his attention between AJ and Ricardo, and not feel guilty when he couldn't be in two places at once. But now, with Del Rio and Mike here, he can go back to being just the supportive best friend, keep Mike strong through whatever's ahead for AJ.
He watches quietly from the doorway when Mike's allowed in, walking quietly to his wife and scooping her up in his arms, whispering to her as she wakes up and clings to him, shoulders shaking in weary sobs.
Further blood tests prove that the levels of drugs in her system are steadily dropping, now well below a dangerous level, so Mike appreciates their decision to let things progress normally, not putting his wife through more pain. AJ's temperment improves every time she's awake, although this brings with it the memories, guilt and horror at what, exactly, she had done. Mike says very little as she confesses groggy recollections of kissing John... of waking up, looking for Mike, just for Ricardo to come in and startle her, as she had been waiting for an opportunity to escape, this leading her to smash the vase across his face with all of her strength, sending him falling backwards into the wall before he'd slumped next to her on the floor, motionless. He listens to her half of the story with a faint grimace before telling her what John and Ricardo had speculated and what the hospital had confirmed about the swapped out vitamins.
"Wh- who would do that to me?" she asks quietly, eyes widening further when he seems to be weighing something before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a list of the roster.
"I was thinking of that as well. It has to be someone in WWE, they wouldn't have easy access to the trainer's stock otherwise. Let's go through the list and mark people off. It may not give us an answer, but give us some idea of who to watch out for." She nods and they put their heads together, staring down at the long list of enemies AJ had gained over the years. The male roster is easy enough to mark off, guys who had never had interactions with AJ. Mike, Alex, Del Rio, Ricardo being the easiest to cross off, soon enough there are only a few possibilities left there. This leaves the divas side, which is a little more complicated. Mike checks off Tamina, Alicia, and Layla quickly. "They were in the wedding, I doubt they did this."
"I agree," she says quietly, feeling disgusted at how long the list on either side of the roster still is.
Mike leans in and kisses her softly. "Don't worry, my list would be twice as long."
She cups the side of his face, holding him close for another kiss. "Are we ok?"
He stares deep into her eyes, lightly nibbling her lip as she shivers against him. "Yeah, sweetheart, we are. As long as you don't make it a habit to kiss or knock out my friends."
She sniffs, tears filling her eyes at his easy forgiveness. "I promise I won't. Never, ever again." He shifts and pulls her closer, stroking her hair in an attempt to comfort her. "Take Rosa off the list," she finally mutters, and they slowly pull apart to go back to work, both determined to figure this out. She looks up a little later and swallows harshly, Mike looking up too to find Ricardo and Del Rio entering the room, the Mexican aristocrat supporting his best friend over to a chair not far from Mike.
"Hey," Mike greets him, forgetting about the list as he moves over to help, holding the somewhat flimsy hospital chair steady as Ricardo slumps down into it, sighing softly. "How are you feeling?"
The former ring announcer painfully squints his eyes open as Alberto pulls thick drapes over the nearest window, casting the room into a nearly perfect shadow. "I'm better," he says slowly. "I still have a headache, and I feel kinda dizzy, but they say I'll be ok with time." Alberto drops a hand on his shoulder, squeezing comfortingly.
"I'm sorry," AJ's weak, sad voice breaks through whatever Mike was about to say, and he turns to look at her, pained at the defeated look on her face as she peers at Ricardo. "I didn't mean to hurt you, I wasn't thinking straight, it was... it was the drugs, or whatever was slipped to me-"
"I know," he says faintly. "I don't blame you. I knew as soon as I saw the medicine bottle there was something not right about it." He smiles wearily. "I was given the same kind of vitamin by the WWE trainers, and I knew what they should've looked like. Yours didn't look anything like mine."
She sniffs and nods, wiping at her face. "Thank you." Mike sits down next to her and rubs her back, smiling as she rests her head on his shoulder, listening to his and Ricardo's conversation until the younger man grows tired and Del Rio insists he return to his room, helping him out of the chair and into the hallway. "He really doesn't blame me," she murmurs sleepily into his neck. his gentle touch leaving her tired and warm, peaceful and safe.
"Of course not," Mike whispers. "He's a pretty good guy that way." Her warm breath tickles his skin and he smiles fondly, kissing the top of her head, before laying her down on the bed and settling in next to her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. "I love you, and I'm so glad you're going to be ok. If anything worse had happened to you while I was gone..." He tightens his grip on her and shudders so deeply that the bed creaks in protest. "I might not have survived it... I'm glad John and Ricardo were there to figure things out... try to help you." He buries his face in her hair and breathes in that scent that's just AJ, all of her surrounding and overwhelming his senses until he too falls asleep, comfortable in the knowledge that she's warm and alive in his arms, and Ricardo will make a full recovery, and everything's going to be ok as soon as they figure out who's responsible and make them pay.
And really, it's not that hard to figure out. The answer is as obvious as anything else in the world possibly could be. Mike is poring over the list once more when he speaks the name that's been banging against his head like a drum since he'd first been told of what was happening to his wife, finding it impossible to speak the words until now, relieved that he'd waited until AJ was released from the hospital when she looks up at him, eyes blazing. "Cameron."
She nods grimly, staring down at the list as he circles the name in angry black circles. "What do we do?"
He smirks at her and leans over, kissing her hard on the mouth. As she digs her fingers into his shirt collar, he sighs. "Funny you should ask, I have a good, no, an awesome idea..."
When the next event comes along, AJ is still technically taking time off but she accompanies Miz to the arena and waits in the hallway, keeping an eye out. She hears them before she sees them, wincing as their loud chatter smacks her in the eardrums, a sound that she'd missed the least during her break. When Naomi and Cameron come into sight, she smirks when Naomi nudges Cameron, both looking quite smug as they approach the former divas champion. "Well, well, look who decided to show her face again..." Naomi says, AJ barely blinking as the two of them corner her, Cameron laughing callously.
"Finally accepted that you're not as good as you claimed you were for months?" the younger diva asks, pushing into AJ's space.
"Well, you know what they say," she says lowly. "There's power in numbers." She glances from woman to woman, tilting her head as they exchange glances before facing her once more. She can tell when her surprise happens as the expressions on the Funkadactyls' faces change abruptly, Tamina, Layla and Alicia appearing behind her.
"Let's get out of here," Cameron mutters to her tag partner, sneering. "They're not worth our time." But when she turns around, she stops abruptly once more, paling even further. On the other end of the hallway, Miz and Del Rio are standing, blocking their only other way out.
"Now, see, girls, this situation is easily resolved-" AJ is starting to say when, instead, the two women opt to attack, barely taking two steps when Tamina clotheslines Naomi harshly to the ground, Layla pushing AJ aside to safety while Alicia dropkicks Cameron hurriedly, the two women now laying side by side, groaning. "Well, I tried warning you," she sighs, kneeling over them. "Let's try this again, hm?" She looks up as Mike and Alberto approach, her husband holding out the infamous bottle of pills to her. "Now, we have plenty of evidence to use against you. As it stands, the lab Del Rio here hired found that there were also fingerprints on this bottle that weren't mine, or anyone else that I know who would have a reason to touch it. So... what do you want to bet, if we went to the higher ups of the WWE and tested them against your fingerprints- which we all know are definitely on file at the police station- we would find exactly who the culprit is within the hour?"
Cameron growls, then moans as she tries and fails at getting to her feet, knowing it'd be pointless to try defending herself against the group before her. "What the hell do you want?"
AJ grips her hair and tugs her up to stare her in the eye. "What do I want? Hmm, Mike, what do you want?"
"I want her to stop making rumors about us, that'd be a start," Mike says, also kneeling down to look the woman in the eye.
"Ah, yes, right, it would be a good start." AJ drops Cameron and smirks as she thuds against the floor. "Del Rio, any requests?"
He doesn't bother kneeling down, but the steely tone in his voice leaves absolutely no doubt to his intentions. "I want her to pay for mi mejor amigo's hospital bills. It is, after all, ultimately her fault that he was concussed."
"That sounds fair," AJ agrees. "But there's one more left..." She once more grabs Cameron's hair, this time dragging her up into a sitting position. "I want you to never look twice at me again, and if you ever do anything to any of us, we all- including Morrison, Alex and Tamina- have copies of the evidence proving what you've done hidden away in safe places for future reference. And none of us will hesitate to do what we feel is needed to rectify this situation should it continue. How does that sound? Perfect, right?"
Cameron struggles but, with Naomi down next to her and being completely surrounded by enemies, she has no recourse. "Fine," she snarls through gritted teeth. "Now let me go!"
"With pleasure," AJ mutters, dropping her once more and wiping her hands off on a nearby towel that had been left behind by a tech. As she takes a deep breath, the leftover tension since the European tour fading from her, Mike approaches her and wraps his arms around her. "It's finally over, isn't it?"
"Yes it is," he whispers, nuzzling against her. "I'm glad my idea worked, you played it perfectly."
She smiles, leaning back into his loving warmth. "Well, we didn't really leave her much of an alternative..."
"This is true." Mike and AJ turn around to watch as one while Del Rio glares Cameron down as she struggles to regroup, tapping his fingers against his arm impatiently. "I think she's going to get more trouble from Del Rio than she could ever have from either of us... Alberto always seemed like a shark when it came to money, throw in that it affects Ricardo, and yep, she's screwed." He chuckles into her ear as she rubs her hands up and down his arm.
"Good," she says. "It's the least she deserves..." She looks up at him. "I'm so glad you didn't blame me for all of this... after everything I've done in the past, I wouldn't have been surprised..."
He looks down at her and shakes his head. "That was the old AJ," he tells her softly. "This is the new AJ... Mrs. AJ Mizanin. I know you wouldn't do such things while in your right mind, and I trust you." She smiles against his lips as he kisses her softly. "Now come on, let's go check on Ricardo, update him on what's been happening, and get you back to our hotel room. I know you don't want to be here, you're still on vacation, after all."
She nods eagerly, slipping her hand into his and squeezing softly as he leads her out of the arena, leaving all of the bad things from the last month behind them.