Jay and Alexa hadn't been back at the hospital for all that long when Dr Andrews came to them in the waiting room they had been directed to. Jay saw Alexa react to something in the doctor's body language and brighten immediately.
"Good news, doc?" she asked hopefully, quickly standing up to speak to him. Jay joined her.
"Good news," Andrews was happy to confirm. "The surgery was a complete success. I replaced the cartilage in the knee and had a bit of a general clean up while I was in there. Everything went well, so as we discussed before, we'll get Clem on a rehab plan in the very near future. As far as right now is concerned, she's in recovery. A nurse will come and get you when she's been moved back to her room and you can see her. It'll probably be an hour or two."
"Thank you so much," Alexa said, sounding as happy and relieved as she obviously felt.
"Yes, thank you," Jay added. "You mentioned before that returning to wrestling will take her around three months. Is that still your opinion?"
Andrews nodded. "It is. Obviously subject to the rehab going well, but I know WWE have people who will be on top of that. I have another patient due a procedure shortly, so I'll have to leave you to it unless there are any other questions you have?"
"No. Thanks again, Doc," Alexa said, shaking hands with him.
"Yeah, great job," Jay said, also shaking hands.
"You're welcome. As I said, a nurse will fetch you when you can see Clem. If you have any questions or concerns about rehab, contact my office."
With that, the doctor left the room and Jay and Alexa sat down to do some more waiting. Now though, the atmosphere had none of the previous heaviness to it.
"I'm so relieved, Jay. Thank you again for coming down here today. I'd have been climbing the walls these past few hours, but you gave me company and kept my mind busy with learning. No doubt you're about to tell me not to keep thanking you. You can't because I've already done it."
The last part was delivered with humour, and it made Jay laugh. "That's fair enough then. The main thing is the surgery was a success. A few more weeks of pain, some tough rehab, then we'll have Clem back at her best. I, for one, am looking forward to that."
Alexa nodded her agreement. "Well said, Jay."
Eventually, as promised, a nurse brought Jay and Alexa from the waiting room to Clementine's room, where she was awake and ready to see them, albeit still drowsy from the anaesthetic and pain medication.
"Hey," Clem said gladly when they walked in. She was lying on the bed with the head end raised somewhat. The now-repaired knee was heavily bandaged.
"Clem! How are you feeling?" Alexa said, dashing over to the bed and embracing her.
"Great right now. Morphine is amazing. I assume that's what they have me on," Clem said as a joke. Jay laughed, and noticed that Alexa did too, although hers sounded more like she was still experiencing a lot of relief over the good news.
"Have they told you how it went?" Alexa asked, before going on to provide the news without waiting for an answer. "A total success, Dr Andrews said."
"Yes, they told me. Great news, but it's still going to hurt for a while."
"True. We're near the end of the nightmare now though," Alexa said, stepping back to allow Jay to come forward.
"Really glad the surgery went so well, Clem," he said. He was hesitant to hug her in the hospital bed, so he took her hand and held it for a moment instead.
"Thank you. Not just for that, but for making sure the surgery happened and for coming down today."
"Of course. But it was Erin who made the surgery happen. All I did was advise her that you should get one."
"I'll be sure to call and thank her," Clem promised.
"She'd appreciate that. I would too. Shall I leave you to give her the good news? I need to think about getting to the airport for my flight home soon."
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Alexa said. "We'll call her with the news while you're flying home."
"Lexi, you can leave me for a while and drive Jay to the airport," Clem said. "I think that's the least we can do."
"Definitely," Alexa agreed.
This was another occasion where Jay realised the polite thing to do was to accept something that was offered rather than trying to turn it down.
As he arrived home to Eagle's Nest that night, Jay looked back on a long, tiring day. But a good day. Clem's surgery had been a success, and he could tell his bond with her and the one with Alexa had both grown stronger. He had been able to tell that by the hug Alexa had given him at the airport when she had dropped him off. There had been more feeling in it. He was glad of that closeness. A lot of effort had gone into working towards it.
The lights were on in the house, suggesting to Jay that Erin was still up. He smiled, looking forward to seeing her and not surprised that she had waited up for him. He couldn't wait to tell her about how well the day had gone, and hoped to hear in return that she had received a call from Clem.
He opened the front door and went inside. Seeing no sign of Erin, he suddenly felt worried.
"Erin?" he called out.
"Hey! I'm in bed, but I'm awake. Come in here."
Glad that the moment of fright had passed as quickly as it had arrived, Jay went through to the kitchen. "I'll be right there. Just need a glass of water."
He quickly fixed and consumed the drink, then went through to the bedroom. Just seeing Erin welcome him home with a smile was all he needed at the end of the long day. She was sitting up in bed, and had either been working or watching something on her tablet, which she set aside on her nightstand.
"Hey. You must be beat. That's been a seriously long day for you," she said before he made it over to her and they exchanged a kiss.
"I am beat. Going to get straight into bed with you. It's been a good day though."
"So I've heard. Clem and Alexa video called me earlier," she announced, obviously happy about it.
"Oh really?" he asked as he began getting undressed, keeping his prior knowledge to himself.
"Yeah. They both wanted to thank me for granting Clem the surgery and time off, not that I ever considered saying no. It was nice of them to thank me though. We ended up talking for more than half an hour, and it was nice. It was almost like we were talking as friends at times. It did make me think about how I badly lack friends. Having to take over the company for my dad really screwed me in that regard. I was so busy with work, the friendships I had faded away."
Jay thought they couldn't have been very good friendships in the first place if that happened. Obviously he wasn't going to say that. Instead, he got into bed and gave her another kiss. "That's their loss, honey. You're a wonderful person and a perfect partner. Anyone would be blessed to have you as a friend. Hopefully you'll be able to form some friendships now that you're focussing on it."
"I'm encouraged by how Clem has been towards me since we had that clear the air meeting at the office. And Alexa seems like a really nice person. Maybe I'll be able to call them friends, in time. We need to spend more time with Z and Raquel too. Now the weather is getting warmer, maybe we could invite them to spend a weekend with us at Whitecaps?"
Settling into bed, Jay worked an arm around behind her, immediately feeling content. "That's a nice idea, honey. We've had it renovated, but we've barely even been to the place since. Spending a few days there with Z and Raquel sounds awesome actually. You should invite them."
For a second, Erin seemed surprised that he was going to leave it to her to make the invites since he was so close to Raquel. But then she figured out why. "Yeah, I'll do that. I'll call Z tomorrow. Jay, did I sound awful before? Complaining about taking over from my dad, I mean. Like, 'Boo hoo, poor girl got a multi-billion dollar company handed to her. Isn't she having a tough life?'"
Jay looked at her, really feeling for her in that moment. "That's not how that sounded at all. Besides, taking over from your dad was a super shitty hand you were dealt. Money has nothing to do with it. Your life was turned upside down, and you were handed a shit load of responsibilities that you weren't ready for. Frankly, I have no idea how you coped with it now that we're looking back on it. So no, there's nothing wrong at all with you complaining about that."
Erin gave him a long, loving kiss. "The way you understand me... I'm so lucky."
He smiled. "Now there's something I never thought would be said to me. But thanks to you I've changed a lot as a person. It's really paying off."
"You've not changed as a person, Jay. Not really. What's happened is you've been able to show your true self to me and to the rest of the world. And what an incredible true self it is. Like I just said, I'm lucky. All of the women in WWE are lucky too, with how much you do for them without so much as a second thought."
Jay didn't feel comfortable being spoken of so highly, so he resorted to humour. "Yeah, well you've got me beat. You're such a good person you didn't judge me for getting into bed without having a wash or brushing my teeth."
She grinned, joining in on the joke. "Well, I thought you were going to do that before we go to sleep."
"I will. God, I love you. Just being back home with you has me feeling so content."
Erin said nothing to that, instead cuddling up to him even more. The way she did it conveyed more than words could have. She was demonstrating that she belonged in his arms.