Survivor Series. SO much on the line, and here's Daniel acting like a petulant five year old, picking fights with everyone, randomly punching people. After watching him brawl with both AJ and Shane and other ridiculously reckless things, Mike stands next to Paige. "You know it needs to happen," he tells her.
Her jaw works. She hates giving in to him, but that's exactly what she does, nodding slowly. "Fine, Daniel's off the team. You're the sole captain."
"Exactly what I wanted to hear," he smirks.
She stares at him. "You'd better have a plan for who's taking Daniel's place, because his shoes are not easy to fill."
Mike doubts it'll be a problem, and proves as much when he replaces Daniel with Jeff Hardy- reckless in a different way, but someone Mike's never had serious problems with since his return to WWE, and he assumes the man will be enough of a team player to not cost them too badly.
After spending the bulk of the show running around, doing what team captains need to do, Mike finds himself back in front of the monitor, watching AJ vs Daniel for the heavyweight title. "This- son of a bitch," he breathes out, things clicking for him as Daniel causes a ref bump. "Oh my God." Mike shakes his head, buries his face in his hands as Daniel lowblows AJ before the referee can recover, this leading to Daniel landing a running knee and pinning AJ just like that. "I hate everything," Mike declares to thin air, turning and saying it a little louder so it'll echo down the hallway into a locker room. "I hate EVERYTHING!"
"Yeah, we get it, shut up," someone who he thinks sounds like Joe yells back, so he obliges, falling quiet and watching the replay.
"I tried to warn everyone," he mumbles. Mike's always been able to read people well, and had had Daniel scouted since the first moment they said hello all of those years ago in NXT. "And now he's a champion again. How disgusting." He rolls his eyes, kicking some used coffee cups and other trash out of his walk path. "They'll regret ignoring my warnings soon enough. They'll see. Nothing's ever been right about that whole thing..."
So he calls AJ that night, sacked out in his hotel room and listening to her bustling round, soothing their daughter. "Is she ok?" he wonders, thinking it's late for her to be raising this much of a fuss.
"Yeah," AJ says. "Just didn't want her nap earlier so she's double exhausted right now."
"Poor kiddo," he says, sympathetic towards his daughter's plight.
"She'll be ok," AJ murmurs, hugging their daughter against her shoulder while holding the phone with her other hand. "Isn't that right, baby girl? Yeah..." She rocks her gently before turning to look at her phone once more. "So I saw all of your warnings about Daniel ended up being true."
"Yep," he intones drily.
She sighs, shifts their daughter, moving to lay her down. She waits a few moments, relieved when the little girl stays asleep, and lightly walks out of her bedroom, shutting the door most of the way before escaping into their bedroom. "It's so ridiculous to think I used to have feelings for him," she muses, sitting on the edge of their bed and smiling weakly at Mike's image on her phone.
"Trust me, I think the same thing quite often," Mike tells her with an exaggerated shiver.
She chuckles at him, dropping down to sprawl out over the sheets. "So are you going to be home soon?" The one benefit of having a PPV in California, he can be home and do media for it all at the same time.
"Yep, I'll be home in the morning."
"Great, I miss you," AJ says, rolling over onto her stomach and propping the phone up on the pillows as she stares sleepily at him. "Sara will be calmer when she sees her daddy also."
He smiles at her. "I'll feel better when I see you both too." He blows her kisses. "Won't be long now. But you look exhausted and who knows when princess will be awake again, so you should get some sleep while you can."
"I guess," she sighs. "See you in the morning, husband."
"See you then," he says softly, watching her for as long as he can until the screen goes dark, Mike hoping she gets a few good hours until Sara is up and at them, requiring attention and breakfast and whatever else. His only consolation will be that he'll arrive home in the middle of all of that to pick up the slack, maybe let AJ take a nap if she needs it.
It's not easy, but they make it work, and Mike is increasingly aware of just how much he really owes his wife for patiently bearing all of this and not complaining once, even though she definitely would be in the right if she did. "Someday," he mumbles aloud. "Someday... I'll make it all up to her..."