"She's still mad," Mike sighs once he's back home that week. Having the title is great, yeah, but it definitely feels empty when no one wants to be around him because of his actions to keep it.
AJ clucks at him, dropping their daughter in his lap. "Well, it's unfortunate you're so klutzy, husband," she teases him gently. "Maybe you should go to youtube and find ways to fix a clock since you can't find a repairman in LA to do it."
Mike blinks a few times, pursing his lips at Sara Louisa and smiling as she babbles and tries to squirm away from him. "So how's she getting on with her walking?" he wonders as AJ goes to get some food from the kitchen.
"Put her down on the floor and see for yourself," AJ calls over her shoulder, pausing in the doorway to watch with a small smile as Mike does just that, plopping her down between his feet so he can grab her if she does something that looks like it'll be too painful.
Sara's eyes light up and she looks around before crawling over to the couch, gripping one of the cushions with her pudgey fingers and pulling herself up to a standing position, making soft babbling noises before letting go of the couch and clapping her hands, taking a few running steps before Mike scoops her up and kisses her loudly, chuckling when she squirms and tries to get back to the floor to continue moving. "Look at you! Soon you'll be saying full sentences and running circles around all of us, huh?"
He stands and walks with her to the kitchen, amazed that she only falters once or twice before making it to AJ, clinging to her pants leg. "There's my girl," AJ coos, lifting her and kissing her. "You like to walk, don't you?" she asks, tickling her and making her shriek with giggles. "So," she says, looking up at Mike. "What are you gonna do?"
"I think you might have had a good idea," he says, smoothing a hand down the baby's back as she stares over her mom's shoulder into the kitchen, chewing on her fingers. "Youtube is as good an idea as either, I'll just need to buy some supplies I think." He kisses Sara on the back of her head, then AJ on the lips. "I'll see you both soon." He grabs the laptop and disappears through the entrance to the garage, AJ giggling as she wrinkles her nose at Sara.
"Daddy's silly," she says. "But hey maybe we'll get a nice, unbroken grandfather clock out of it."
Mike toils nonstop through the week in the garage on the mess that he's made out of this poor clock. Why there were youtube tutorials on this, he doesn't want to know, but it works in his favor, takes him piece by piece through how to do it. It's tedious work though, leaving him an anxious, jittery mess. The thoughts of Maryse mad at him longer than this eats at him, causes him to move very carefully through the innards of the clock. The only times he takes breaks is when AJ sneaks in, kissing him on the neck and pulling him away for some food, or sleep, or just to take a breather.
"How's it looking?" he asks after almost three days of working on it.
AJ stares at the clock before stroking his exhausted face. "I think it's looking just about perfect. Now come to bed." She kisses him and draws him out of the chair, leading him inside. "I'd be surprised if you didn't have it finished first thing tomorrow, but right now you need at least eight hours of sleep." Her words are punctuated when she pushes him onto their bed and he immediately falls asleep, her lips twitching up as she helps him out of his shoes and into some more comfortable clothes before shaking out a sheet over his prone body, curling up next to him and hugging him. "Good night, husband."
He wakes up blurrily the next morning and looks over at her, kissing her quickly before carefully slipping out from bed, padding towards the garage. There's only a few little fixes to make, and then he winds it up, steps back and waits. When it begins to tick, his shoulders slump forward and he exhales, smiling waveringly. "Did it. I am awesome," he mumbles victoriously to himself.
Patting the clock, he turns back to the house and gets back into bed next to AJ, kissing her and hugging her close. "Success," he breathes out, nuzzling between her shoulderblades and falling back asleep.
Heath greets him a bit coolly. He wants an Intercontinental title opportunity, Mike knows, but he's too focused on Dean right now to just throw around matches like that. And besides, something about his weighing having Heath work with him had left him with some half-formed ideas. "Do you know anyone who could work with me?" he wonders. "LIke I was suggesting last week. The entourage thing?"
Heath purses his lips. Continues fussing with Rhyno's cheese. "Axel'n'Bo are good guys," he finally says.
Heath tilts his head. Thinks about the other guys from the Social Outcasts. Hadn't had any problems with them on the movie set either, so... "You know, that's a good idea," he says, clapping Heath on the back. "Thanks, man. I'll go talk to them."
Heath doesn't say anything and Mike winces, leaving to handle it. The two of them doesn't jump at his offer right away but he does leave them looking thoughtful, like they might be considering his words, and that's all he can ask for now as he hustles to prepare MizTV with Maryse as his guest, trying still to ease things over with her. Gets her favorite champagne, has the clock set up for her, and then stares at the bear costumes he's set up for the evening. Wonders who to put in them when... Axel and Bo appear behind him, and his eyes light up as he realizes just what he can do to have just a little extra security should Dean Ambrose crash this as well.
Which he does, at the worst possible time, after Mike had unveiled the repaired clock, handing a glass of champagne to Maryse and getting her to warm up enough to smile at him for the first time in over a week. How things go so badly, Mike's not sure, but first he spills the champagne all over her, and then he's sent into the clock, demolishing it all over again. Undoing all of the delicate work he'd put into it over the last few days. He freezes, then can only stand there and watch as she storms up the ramp yet again, devestated and soaked. He hopes Heath can sooth her, but for now...
Bo and Axel pay off, beat Dean down and leave him open for Mike's Skull Crushing Finale, which feels like truly empty revenge after everything he's done the last week to him, to Maryse, but it's a start.
They walk backstage, Bo and Axel tagging along, and Mike isn't surprised to find his locker room empty again. Wonders if he should search for the others, make sure Maryse is ok, but ultimately opts to give them a break from his presence. Especially while he's figuring out what he's going to do with the two men on either side of him.
Heading back out into the hall, he watches passively as ring techs walk by with the remains of the grandfather clock between them. "We can ship this back to your house again if you want, Miz," one of them says, an almost sympathetic look on his face.
"No," Mike sighs. "Just... throw it in the trash. I'm tired of fighting with it. I've done all I can to fix it, and this keeps happening, so... best to let it go, I guess."
"Whatever you say," the guy says with a shrug, hoisting it back up and walking outside with it.
Mike feels bad, letting it go like that, but he needs to focus on shaking this Ambrose problem once and for all. Fixing things with Maryse will have to be done some other way. Maybe away from the ring, in a way that Ambrose can't sabotage.