Mike stares at his phone a lot the next couple of days. There are a lot of things going on post-Mania: Media events, the news officially breaks that Total Divas is going to be revamped with Alicia, Rosa and Mandy leaving and Maryse, Renee and Lana joining, Naomi returning as well. Mike grimaces, only able to guess how AJ will feel about all of that.
Tuesday is torture as he flies back home, eager to try to make things right before he returns to Smackdown for his rematch against Zack. It sucks, Zack's a good friend, but the business isn't meant for friends, and it had given Maryse an excuse to get a foothold back in. He closes his eyes, disgusted that he'll have to do it all over again to Zack, stuck in traffic and waiting to see AJ and his daughter again, try to smooth over why he's going through all of this with Maryse in the longterm. He had thought, originally, a week. Maybe two. But, no... he'll be expected to be on Total Divas, and... and then... He closes his eyes and grunts, slapping his hand against the steering wheel.
Finally the cars before him start to move forward in a little faster crawl and he releases a breath, trying not to ride the silver vehicle's bumper, no matter how desperate he is to get onto the freeway ramp and get to his house. It takes a good half an hour just to manage that much, and he considers calling AJ, but thinks maybe giving her advanced warning would be a bad thing. So he quietly pulls into the driveway and parks, shutting the car door as quietly as possible before unlocking the front door and slipping inside.
The house is quiet, and he checks his watch. It's Sara Louisa's naptime which means AJ is probably catching some sleep too. I hope, anyway, he thinks, unable to shake the feeling that the house is just too quiet. It's with a deep exhale of relief that he finds, when he peeks into the bedroom, that AJ is laying on the bed, cuddling with Sara as she feeds her. Their eyes lock as Sara fusses at the lack of attention until AJ adjusts her and kisses her forehead.
He toes his shoes off and quietly walks over to them, brushing his hand across Sara's forehead before focusing his miserable gaze on AJ. She stares at him stoically before turning her attention back onto her daughter, determined not to talk to him. "AJ," he says desperately, reaching out to touch her.
She soothes Sara as she stands up and moves over to the rocking chair in the corner, sitting down and rocking the baby back and forth as she finishes feeding her, settling her against her shoulder to burp her and hopefully lull her back to sleep.
Mike hisses out a breath between his teeth, wandering back over to them and sinking down at AJ's feet, staring up at her. He's careful not to touch her or whisper to her, watching her watch Sara until the little girl dozes back off, finally leaving AJ confident enough to put her back into the crib that they'd moved into the room until Sara was old enough for them to feel comfortable to let her sleep in the nursery.
After making sure Sara's comfortable, AJ turns and grabs Mike by the collar, dragging him out of the bedroom with surprising strength, considering her size. She all but tosses him outside before pushing the door shut- motherly instincts keeping her from slamming it shut, but her anger fueling her enough that it's close. Mike watches as she storms back towards him, pushing him hard with all of her strength. Which, considering she hadn't wrestled in a year by now, is still considerable. "Asshole!" she hisses at him. "I trusted you that this would be temporary, that Maryse would just need help here or there, and then you'd both go your separate ways. Now you're going to be on a reality show for who the hell knows how long with her as husband and wife?"
He nods miserably, gripping her wrists gently. Her anger quickly subsides and her knees give out as she sinks to the ground, sobbing bitterly. He slumps down with her and tries to hug her, unsurprised but hurting as she fights. Punches him, pushes him, until her strength leaves her and she slumps into his arms, crying almost impossibly hard. He rocks her, kisses the top of her head, tries to soothe her. "We'll get through this," he promises her. "We will... we wll."
"How?" she chokes out, pale and shaking. "How?"
He doesn't know a good answer to that so he remains quiet, kisses her softly and wipes the tears off of her cheeks.
After a tense couple of days at home, Maryse meets Mike at the LA airport and smiles halfheartedly at him. "Everything alright?"
He shakes his head. "Come on, let's get this over with." The act begins again, he performs like a diligent husband, laughing and talking with Maryse, glaring at anyone who dares to slight or be rude to her, doing everything short of kissing her again because, yeah, no. He can't do that, not after days of holding together a shattered AJ, but no one questions it. Thankfully.
He's on auto-pilot when he wrestles Zack in the rematch for the Intercontinental title on Smackdown, relieved when Maryse intercedes on his behalf once more because he really did think he was going to lose it. Destroying Zack's dreams once more eats at him, but he has to put his career, his family first, and Zack's young. Zack will have other opportunities, hopefully.
Maryse looks concerned for Mike, which is hilariously sad, but he keeps his thoughts to himself. It's not her fault, he had gotten himself into this mess... of course. He bids her farewell at the LA airport once more and drives home once more, finding AJ asleep with Sara in the crib. She's cooing and babbling to herself when Mike walks up to look in on her, but she's content so he leaves her alone, heading over to hug AJ. "I'm sorry," he breathes into her hair. "I'm so sorry."
She wakes up in his arms and grips his collar for a moment before pushing him away. "I can't do this," she says with a broken little exhale. "I can't share a bed with you while you're pretending to be another woman's husband."
It hurts. It feels like knives are being stabbed through Mike's ribcage. But he understands. He kisses her forehead once more, leans over Sara and kisses her gently, before grabbing his luggage and slipping into the nursery. They had put a bed there, for when Sara is moved in here, in case they should have rough nights and need somewhere close to her to sleep. He lays his suitcase down and slumps onto the bed, burying his face in his hands. "What have I done?" he mumbles.
After a tense weekend where AJ only says general things about meals, or Sara, and Mike isn't sure what to say that wouldn't cause her more pain, he finds himself back once more at the LA airport, Maryse staring at him with brows furrowed. "Are you alright?"
He laughs bitterly. "No, I'm not." That's all they say to each other the rest of the flight. He's not booked in a match so they stay backstage, Maryse tormenting the PAs over his water and his M&Ms, and other meaningless things like that while he rests with the cucumbers she'd gotten him to try to ease his eyes' redness, the bags under them from days of little to no sleep. Cesaro is the #1 contender for his title, and his lingering guilt towards Zack grows more and more along with the self-loathing towards what he's doing to AJ.
When he drinks the cheap, bitter, acidic domestic water, his night goes from bad to worse and he spits it out to Maryse's yells that it's the wrong water. Slumping back in the chair, he buries his face in his hands and listens to her soft, soothing meandering in French.
"This is all my fault," she finally says in English, slumping down next to him. "I have caused problems in your marriage, I have made your intercontinental title reign all about myself, I have forced you onto a terrible reality TV show... I should've figured out my own financial problems, I shouldn't have dragged you into it, I was just... so very desperate."
He tilts his head and stares at her, a broken kind of smirk crossing his face. "It's not your fault," he sighs. "I didn't have to agree to do all of this... but I wanted to help you, so here we are. Things with AJ will work out, they have to. We have Sara to consider, we can't let things fall apart this soon. As for the intercontinental title, it's not my first reign, it probably won't be my last." Guilt greets him again when he thinks about how it was Zack's first reign. "As for Total Divas, yeah, that is probably the worst thing you could do to a guy... but I'll survive. Somehow." He winks at her, relieved when she giggles a bit. "We'll be alright," he promises her.
She nods easily, squeezing his hand before releasing it quickly. "I believe you."