"John's birthday is Tuesday," Mike says, nuzzling into AJ and enjoying the serene silence of the house. Heath's back from handling his business and he and Maryse are out for a walk, Sara's napping, and everything's quiet.
AJ distractedly traces the lines of Mike's palm. "Do you want to do something special for it after you get home? Invite him and Taya over, give Maryse the biggest piece of birthday cake, all of that?"
Mike smiles into her hair. "Sounds perfect. Then we get to do it all again when the most important man in your life's birthday happens next week."
She gnaws on her bottom lip, lost in thought. "Big E's birthday's already passed," she muses, then squeaks when Mike gasps and hoists her up, tickling her until she squeals. "No, no, you're gonna wake Sara!" He eases up but just to kiss her warmly, smirking against her lips as she sighs and melts into his warmth. "But yeah, a birthday party sounds great." She kisses him softly. "Hopefully Maryse's morning sickness is well enough that she can enjoy it."
Mike nods. Rubs his hands up and down AJ's back. "Has it been bad?" Maryse stays at the house whenever Heath isn't around, AJ eager to help the woman as much as she can.
"Worse than mine," AJ says quietly, resting her head on his shoulder. "She does ok with crackers and ginger ale usually, but whenever I try to feed her anything else, she's off to the bathroom." She traces Mike's abs and sighs. "Maybe we should let John look at her. He seems to have the magic touch with pregnant ladies."
Mike scoffs out a laugh and then shakes his head. "I'm not sure how well Heath would like that. I know he helped you when you were in labor and I'm thankful for that, but that was an extreme circumstance. I'm not sure if he can do anything about morning sickness."
"Wouldn't hurt to try though," she says, pouting up at him until he caves. She immediately beams and kisses him, sensing that she's won the discussion.
He hums and kisses her back, not minding too much. He grabs his phone dials John's number. "Hey, so I hear someone has decided to wreck everyone's Tuesday by having a birthday."
"Well, hello to you too, Mike," he says with a smirk. "What's up?"
"Come over after I get home from Raw, you and Taya. We'll have Heath and Maryse over, have a small little thing for your birthday. Sound alright?"
"Yeah, sounds good, man."
"Oh, and AJ might want you to do a little hands-on healing, if you don't mind."
John falls silent for a long moment. "She alright?"
"Oh yeah! AJ's fine," Mike rushes to explain. "Just Maryse is suffering from some bad morning sickness and AJ thought it might help."
"Oh. I don't know, never tried it, but guess I can give it a go." Mike gives AJ the thumbs up and she beams, kissing him before going to find Maryse. "Alright, well, I'll see you on Tuesday then. I'll let you know when my flight's in."
"Alright, see ya then, Mike."
They hang up and Mike closes his eyes, wondering what Raw will bring.
It brings, of course, some frustration. He has to compete against Roman for his Intercontinental title and, although he tries to put on a brave front, he's worried. Especially with rumors of a looming Shield reunion rumbling through the locker room, not dispelled in the slightest by Dean, Seth and Roman's various denials. Axel and Bo get taken out early and Miz's life- his lengthy title reign- flashes before his eyes as he's forced to fight alone... comes close to losing, comes close to hitting the Skull Crushing Finale and winning, everything imaginable. He's just about to lose hope when Cesaro and Sheamus involve themselves. Clearly they've heard the rumors too and decided to throw gas on the fire, as the three of them stand side by side and do the Shield pose over Roman's prone body.
He laughs out loud when he sees by the end of the show that it works. Seth and Dean coming face to face with Roman in the locker room. Nothing said, nothing done, but still. The seeds are planted. He sneers at the thought of getting to take away the hype of the Shield. Leaving them laying and broken in the middle of the ring. "Sounds pretty damn good," he murmurs, flexing his fists.
John's birthday is quiet, the group of them spending most of the time catching up. AJ is worried for her family trapped in Puerto Rico, so they keep it lowkey and order Chinese. John sits with Maryse for awhile, listening to her talk, brows furrowed, before gripping Heath's hands and resting them on her, above where their child is growing. The two of them exchange glances and Heath's smile is soft and warm and she exhales quietly, rubbing his knuckles. "We made this," she murmurs and he nods.
"We sure did." She cups his face, gently kisses him, and he smiles. "Feel better?"
"Maybe, a little." She rests her face against Heath's shoulder and yawns, looking over at John. "Thank you, John."
"Any time, Maryse." He smiles at her and moves away, curling an arm around Taya as she talks softly to AJ about the problems with Puerto Rico.
Mike stands in the doorway and watches his friends- his family- wander around, comfortable and content to spend time together. He smiles before walking in to help comfort AJ, filled with so much warmth and affection for all of these people.