Upon returning to California, Mike is still tense after everything fell apart with Heath, AJ watching him worriedly as they walk to the nearest park, pushing Sara in her little stroller. As much as they like the beach, sometimes a change is nice and AJ likes sitting Sara by the dog park while she works through a few last edits on her book. "I'm sure he's not mad at you," AJ says. "Or at least if he is, he'll get over it soon. He's a good guy."
"I know," Mike mumbles. "And it's not just him either. Daniel and just everything." He exhales roughly. "Just because I work smart doesn't mean I'm a coward. I've never been an indy darling, I never will be. I accepted this a long time ago. I guess I just thought after over ten years, others would as well."
AJ runs her fingers through his hair, leaning over to kiss him gently. He stares into her eyes as she smiles at him. "We know you're not a coward... and we thank you for working smart. I'd rather Sara have a whole and relatively healthy father than someone who can barely lean over to kiss her good night."
He hooks his arms around her waist and hugs her close, resting his head against hers as she settles in his lap. They both watch the dogs running and playing in the fenced part of the park, Mike chuckling softly and kissing her shoulder. "Thank you," he whispers against her skin.
She smiles and tilts his face towards her, kissing him gently. "You're very welcome, husband."
Although he's unable to stay angry around AJ and Sara, by the time he's back on the road and everyone is asking him, poking and needling him about what Daniel Bryan had said, his heated response to it, the anger quickly returns. He doesn't ask, simply goes out and kicks Smackdown off. Talks about Daniel and everything else that had transpired from Talking Smack, his own responsibilities in this company, and how hard he works to keep up with everything required of him.
He's in midsentence when a disgustingly familiar theme interrupts him, his jaw tense as he watches Dolph Ziggler make his way down the ramp. It's the usual with him, Ziggler is a fighter, Miz is only in it for the fame, he doesn't love wrestling like Dolph does, blahblahblah. It's not until Dolph mentions Mike's wife- derisively, of course, because he knows that Miz is married to AJ and all of this Maryse stuff is an act- that Mike really loses it, moves like he wants to fight Dolph, and dammit, he does, but the look on AJ's face back in California when she'd thanked him for being smart sticks with him, how she'd told him she was glad that he fights the way he does, for himself, for her... for Sara.
For this reason, he leaves. He's still steaming, so he paces the ringside area, pulling off his tie and jacket, stewing. Dolph is trying to belittle him into returning, and Mike considers it, but he heads up the ramp... just for Dolph to yell after him about being a coward, which gets the crowd going. Mike wants to fight him, oh God he does so bad, but now Maryse is there, in his face, holding him back, telling him to think about AJ and Sara. So he does, exhaling and inhaling and finally escaping through the curtain, ignoring the still boisterious yells from the crowd.
She rubs his shoulders for a few moments before pulling away, sounding breathless and pained. "Heath."
Mike's eyes widen and he turns too, finding Heath standing there with Rhyno a few feet away. He advances carefully, not wanting to get in another confrontration. "Hey, man. Good to see you. How are things?"
Heath's eyes are locked on Maryse as he answers, barely paying attention. "Things're fine. I gotta match later against the Headbangers to advance in the tag tournament. 'N' WWE filmed somethin' about my homelife, that should be airin' later on tonight."
"WWE wanted to film that dinky little apartment you've got?" Mike asks without thinking and Heath stares at him coolly. "I mean- I, it's a charming little place," he tries to backtrack, hands outstretched in apology.
Heath exhales. "No, it wasn't my little apartment," he says with some derision. "You'll see whenever they air it. C'mon, big man." Walking past Rhyno, he waits for him to follow and Rhyno stares beadily at Mike for a moment before doing so.
Mike grimaces and struggles to smile as Maryse joins him. "Well, at least Rhyno seems to legitimately have his best interest at heart, huh?" She nods quietly and he pats her hand. "He'll come around, I promise you. No one could ever stay mad at you for long."
He smiles for real at her now as she sniffs and composes herself. "Right. Of course." They stand there quietly and she exhales. "May we go back to the locker room and watch Heath's match and... whatever this look at his life ends up being?"
"Of course," Mike says, holding her hand and walking towards his private locker room. It gives him time to calm down, watching the rest of the show. Nothing overly relevant to him happens- Zack and Mojo advance to face against whoever advances between Heath and Rhyno or the Headbangers, and he's glad that Zack will have some chance for another title after what he'd done to him just to get the belt around his shoulder right now. Finally, Heath's 'day in the life' segment comes up and Maryse leans forward, her eyebrows raising nearly into her hairline when Heath's 'trailer' is shown. Her face is a pure test in perplexed uncertainty when Heath's 'wife' Beulah is shown.
The segment seems to go on and on, with Rhyno eating fake cheese on crackers and Heath talking about what the tag tournament means for him, Beulah interrupting here and there. Mike's eyes go from the TV to Maryse's tense shoulders and back until finally it ends and the commentators resume babbling about whatever before the standard segue into a commercial. "Well," he mumbles. "That definitely was something."
Her laugh is dry, almost a wheeze. "As soon as he's won tonight, I am going to sit him down and have a talk with him," she declares, her fingers digging into her palm as she watches the mindless commercials go by.
He cups her hand and gently pulls her fingers away to keep her from hurting herself. "Probably a good idea," he says kindly, smiling at her as she exhales in aggravation. "I'm sure he has a good explanation."
"He'd better," she declares, pulling her hand away from him and grabbing her phone, her fingers angry little blurs as she scrolls through her timeline for the distraction.
It seems to take forever for Heath's match but when it finally starts, Maryse puts her phone down and watches with Mike as he fights, constantly getting beat up by Mosh and Thrasher. It all turns on a dime when Rhyno takes a punch that busts him up, Rhyno getting into the ring and brutalizing both men before grabbing Heath and dragging him over to their corner, screaming, "Tag me in!" and quickly slipping into the ring as Heath rolls out. It takes one gore and it's over, Rhyno bleeding heavily as Heath gets up and they celebrate the victory in the ring, Heath's lips parting in that amazed grin he gets when he realizes he's actually on the winning side of a match.
Maryse looks somewhere between pleased and angry, which is something that shouldn't work but does for her, and Mike follows her out as she goes to confront Heath. He finishes talking in the ring to Byron, mentioning Beulah and Mike rests a hand on Maryse's back as she grits her teeth and mumbles in angry French. Heath's wiping at the blood dripping down Rhyno's face as a trainer follows along, advising him to get stitches and leading him away. Heath's about to follow his partner when he spots Maryse and swallows hard. "Oh. Maryse. Hello...?"
She walks up to him and Mike watches, wondering if Maryse is going to slap him... when she throws her arms around him and hugs him tightly. He stands there awkwardly for a moment before hugging her back. "I'm so sorry," she says against his shoulder. "Last week was an act, we didn't mean to ignore you. I'm so glad you found Rhyno and have advanced into the semi-finals." Pulling away, she looks up into his eyes before slapping his shoulder. "Who is Beulah?!"
Heath's laugh is somewhere between desperation and helplessness. "Rhyno's cousin needed some money so I agreed to help her out? It was her trailer too." He rubs at his nose uncomfortably, Maryse finally realizing that he's bleeding from a cut across the bridge of it, her eyes softening as she reaches out and gently touches it. He cringes and she pulls away, immediately gripping his hand and dragging him off after the trainer.
Mike blinks and follows them, standing in the doorway and watching as Maryse pushes Heath onto a cot and taps her feet against the tiled floor in annoyance until the trainer finishes stitching Rhyno up, Heath trying to convince her that Rhyno needs the man more. Finally he turns to look at her and she makes a face at him. "Heath's nose is bleeding, perhaps you should check to make sure it isn't broken or something?"
The trainer looks startled as Heath shakes his head. "It's not broken, I'd know if it was." He strokes Maryse's knuckles as she returns to his side, appeased when the trainer throws away his gloves and pulls on new ones, quickly examining Heath. She looks bashful when the trainer confirms what Heath claimed but shakes it off, relieved to hear confirmation. "We gotta do somethin' real quick for Talkin' Smack," he tells her, motioning to Rhyno. "I'll be back soon, kay?"
She nods, stepping back so he can hop off of the cot and join his tag partner. As soon as they're gone, she points at Mike. "Don't say a word."
"I wasn't going to," he says, shrugging. "You're cute."
She scoffs but can't help looking oddly pleased despite the flush to her skin. "I guess he's forgiven us."
"Well, you," Mike allows. "He hasn't really looked at me yet."
"He will," Maryse says confidently, sitting down to wait. The trainer looks unimpressed but says nothing, going about his business while they wait.
Once Heath returns, Rhyno lurking behind him, Mike steps up and catches his eye. "Hey, Heath."
"Hello," he says tensely, turning towards Maryse.
"I'm sorry about last week," Mike says. "I was busy on the phone, I didn't realize you were talking to me or what about until you'd already left. But hey, it seemed to work out ok." He looks doubtfully over at Rhyno, who is still staring at him stoicly and he swallows. "Right?"
"Yeah, Rhyno's great," Heath says enthusiastically, slapping Rhyno on the chest. He seems to realize what he's done, pausing uncomfortably, but Rhyno doesn't react positively or negatively so he swallows and turns to Maryse, reaching out for her hand. "Wanna go get somethin' to eat?"
She nods eagerly and they leave after quick farewells, Mike raising an eyebrow at Rhyno. "And then there were two," he mumbles.
After driving Rhyno back to the hotel, Mike is relieved that he already has a room of his own that he'd been splitting with Heath which allows Mike to escape to his own hotel suite. It's been a long day and he collapses into bed, trying to find the energy to call AJ. When he does, it's a quick call because she's exhausted too, the two of them murmuring tiredly to each other before she says Sara's had a rough day between teething and everything, so AJ needs to get some sleep before she wakes up again so Mike lets her go. He drops an arm over his eyes and immediately falls asleep.
When he wakes up a few hours later, it's to find Maryse whispering goodnights to Heath at the door before leaning up and kissing him quickly, gently shutting the door once he leaves and slipping into the bathroom. Smiling to himself, Mike rolls over and falls asleep once more.