Mike is sleeping off the European tour, trying to get more well-rested before Survivor Series, when something wakes him up. He groans and rolls over, AJ patting him. "Husband, your phone is ringing," she says quietly, yawning as Mike fumbles and grabs it.
"Hello?" he asks, finally answering it. He listens quietly for a few minutes and then says, "Thank you so much, it'd be an honor. Alright, your people call my people, we'll iron all of the details out." He hangs up and stares at the ceiling quietly for a minute before rolling over, wrapping his arms around AJ and drawing her closer to him, kissing her neck. "Hey, sweetheart?"
"Mm hmm?" she asks sleepily, leaning back into him.
He hesitates. "What do you think about London?" She stares at him incredulously and he smiles faintly. "I was just offered the lead role in Marine 6. They're filming in London the Monday after Thanksgiving. What do you think?"
"I think I need to get Sara's passport dusted off," she says with a small smirk, leaning up to kiss him. 'So, Jake Carter, huh?"
"Yep." He squeezes her, kissing her nose. "Jake Carter. My absolute best role."
She giggles and nuzzles her face into his throat, kissing him. "I'm happy for you."
"Thank you." He guides her to sprawl out over his chest, draping the sheets over them. "Go back to sleep, we have a couple of hours before we have to be adults."
"Mm, well, yes, but it's not often that the house is quiet and peaceful, and I feel like... we should celebrate," she tells him, kissing him. "What do you say?"
Mike's eyes darken as he rubs his hands up and down her back. "I say you have great ideas so I should listen to you more regularly."
She smirks. "Yes, you definitely should, husband," she says, scraping her nails down his jaw lightly.
Mike tries that weekend. He really does. But he's got the weight of another Marine movie on his shoulders, wanting to do his very best by the franchise, and that along with the expectations of Raw is just too much for him. He drops the ball and loses to Baron Corbin, who's been looking too often at Maryse, who's sitting at ringside to support her friend. It pisses him off and he can imagine how Heath must be feeling, watching this, and he tries to make Baron pay but nothing works right.
After losing, he meets up with Maryse. "I'm sorry," he says, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"It's ok, it's- I know you did your best," she says, resting her hand on his arm. She smiles at him. "Is everything ok? You've seemed distracted all day."
"I'm leaving soon to film Marine 6," he explains, leaning against the wall and trying to tame his hair once more. "I just received the script earlier today. We begin filming in London after Thanksgiving."
Her smile grows as she rests a hand on her stomach, lightly rubbing it, remembering Marine 5 and getting to know Heath there. "That's fantastic, Mike. I'm so happy for you! London, ah it is gorgeous. I am so jealous of you." She leans up and kisses him on the cheek. "Are you bringing AJ and the baby with you?"
"Yeah," he nods. "At least for some of it. I can't wait. I feel like I'm missing so much of her life, it'll be nice to be close to her for awhile."
Maryse nods somberly. "I'm very glad that you'll get to experience that, Mike." She smiles at him. "Try not to beat yourself up too much about tonight. You'll bounce back."
He nods. "Thanks, Maryse. Tell Heath hi for me, ok?" She nods and turns to leave, giving him time to himself to regroup. Try to shake off the loss and prepare for Raw the following night.
It's more of the same, he tries to host MizTV with Roman as his guest, but instead of just coming out like any other normal guest, he brings Seth and Dean with him and they take Bo and Axel out, Mike only just scrambling to safety. He has no choice but to accept when Roman challenges him to a mathc for his Intercontinental title belt and Angle forces him to defend his belt. Which means, for the second night in the row, he finds himself laying, a loser. His title belt isn't his anymore, and all he can do is stare at the bright lights overhead and listen to the Shield celebrating overhead.
It's disgusting, it annoys him so much, and he lunges to his feet, trying to take them all out, just to get lifted up and put through a table at ringside. Now his ribs and back are burning in agony, and he has to struggle just to take a breath, much less start to actually walk up the ramp to get away fromt he annoying group behind him. He glares pointedly at Angle as he stalks off down the hall, needing some pain medicine and sleep. The thought of his title... in the hands of Roman Reigns for the foreseeable future... he hates it so much, but there's nothing he can do about it now. Unlike last time, he won't be away temporarily to film; this will take more time, especially since they're in London, so he has no choice but to accept it.
"For now," he mumbles, digging his nails into his boot's laces as he struggles to get them off to change into street clothes so he can go back to the hotel and call AJ, let her talk him down fromt his angry ledge he's balancing precariously on.