Chapter 41

After her appointment with the doctor, Delilah was ordered to go straight to the hospital for scans and X-rays, just as she predicted. Bloodwork was also done as well. Britt stood by her side through everything, staying in the lobby because she wasn't allowed to the back for the scans and bloodwork. It took over three hours, but once she finished, Delilah was emotionally and mentally exhausted, really hoping she had a swift answer from Doctor Ramos. Britt took her out for dinner, getting her mind off things, and Delilah had no idea they'd had photos taken of them walking out of the hospital. It was all over social media by the time dinner finished and Delilah had shut her phone off, not wanting to be rude to Britt. They decided to have a movie night together with some popcorn, just to get Delilah's mind off her upcoming test results.

Unfortunately, being a wrestler and an AEW star…there was zero privacy any time they were out in public, even when it was a serious matter.

Paparazzi and fans did not care.

That was how Jon found out his wife had finally gone in to be looked at. Somejackasshad parked their car and snapped photos when they had gone in, then gotten them again hours after the fact. Including the after-hospital dinner Britt and Delilah went too. Still keeping with his 'no social media and tech' façade, Jon didn't come out and say anything because he knew eventually someone would tell him. But he saw it, he had her tagged in his search settings, so anything 'newsworthy' about his wife, he got an alert for. Maybe that was a little weird, but he did it anyway. Jon didn't know what to think about that, nursing a pre-match beer while scrolling through the images. He wasn't even mad. Maybe he was disappointed that she couldn't come to him, listen to him when he begged and pleaded, before resorting to raging, but at the same time…he felt relief. He wouldn't say a word to her, realizing Delilah hadn't told him for a reason, and he could only hope she would come to him and tell him what he now knew.

Later on that night, after Britt passed out on her, Delilah blinked at the numerous text messages and missed phone calls on her phone. Her jaw dropped when she went on social media and saw what had been discovered…her hospital visit and dinner with Britt. "Shit…" Jon hadn't texted her about it, so either he hadn't seen what she did yet or…he was waiting for her to reach out to him. Chewing her bottom lip, it was too late to contact Tony Khan, who was one of those missing phone calls. Right now, she was contemplating what to do about Jon, if she should call or text him. "Damn it, he deserves a phone call…"

Maybe it would be easier to talk to him over the phone about her neck instead of face-to-face. Jon could be very pushy when he wanted to be and demanding, which was why she didn't want to confide in him about how she felt. She was afraid of judgment and ridicule because he thought one way and she thought another when it came to injuries. Now that it was out there that she was possibly injured…Delilah called him before she could talk herself out of it and waited for him to answer or his voicemail.

This wasn't something Jon would ridicule her for. He had his own issues physically that led to a surgery, followed by an experience with MRSA that had left him wondering if he would ever wrestle again. And it was his own fault for not getting it checked out sooner, which he did point out to her. That was the last thing he wanted her to go through because MRSA was life-threatening. He had been PUSHING for this; their source of issues was her insisting on working through the pain and injury, getting frustrated with him for riding her, and him getting angry at her for being stupid with her health. In his view, her life, and being a dick because of his frustration were all factors in this.

He was still frustrated and he knew it was irrational because it was also that he had a few beers after his match, not even showered yet. He stared down at his phone, inhaling deeply before answering it. "Hey, doll."

"Hi." Delilah shut her eyes the moment his voice filled her ear, her heart rate picking up a notch. How did she go about saying what was on her mind and in her heart? She had a tissue in hand and dabbed her eyes as a few tears fell, her sniffle resonating through the phone. "I'm sure you've already seen I went to the hospital today with Britt. I knew you had your match and you weren't coming home, and I didn't want to go to the doctor alone, so I asked her to come with me. They scanned my neck and x-rayed it, and I'm waiting to hear the results. It's gotten worse and…" She swallowed hard, hating the words that were about to come out of her mouth. "I might have to retire, Jon. I-I might not be able to wrestle again if I need surgery on my neck…and I didn't want to face it. I don't know what I'll do if I can't wrestle, it's all I've ever known…"

Jon closed his eyes at those words, inwardly sighing at the sadness in her tone and knew what she felt right now. He had felt the same when that infection had taken over his arm after his surgery, it had been pretty bad. "I know, doll, I know," He soothed, knowing a C1 fracture was very unstable and she had been wrestling with it. "But if it's something that can be fixed with surgery…"

Or maybe she had a pinched nerve or…who knew at this point? He was reaching for hope to give her, and the truth was, there was no idea how much extra damage she had done to the initial injury when she hadn't slowed down like she should have. Pointing that all out would have been a bad thing, though, and he didn't want her to feel like he was rubbing it in her face.

"Any idea when you'll get the results back?"

"They said a couple of days. Doctor Ramos is who I saw, and…he said surgery is a very real possibility, though. That tells me he must've felt something wrong when he examined me and pressed on my neck…" Delilah felt angry with herself for not being more careful in the ring, for letting this happen in the first place. "W-What am I going to do if I can't wrestle again, Jon? Stay at home alone while you're on the road doing what I can't anymore?" She started crying harder, the reality of her situation crashing over her intensely. Life was horrible right now, and it didn't help that she had alienated her husband because of her stubbornness. "This sucks, I'm the women's champion right now and I'm gonna have to drop the title because I either need surgery or it's so bad, surgery won't fix it and I'll have to retire." Neck injuries were nothing to screw with and a lot of legendary wrestlers, men and women, had been taken out of the game because of their necks.

Neck injuries were NOT something to be trifled with, something she had been told repeatedly, and brushed off due to that stubborn streak. Jon almost felt angry again because if she had gotten a second opinion, when the pain didn't stop and QUIT wrestling, they might not even be at this point. It might have been something that could have been fixed without risking her career, but since she had wrestled on it and ignored everything, drugging herself and 'pushing through it'. He inhaled deeply, knowing that wasn't right to think at all and, even then, it didn't matter because they were here now.

"It doesn't mean you have to leave the business entirely, doll. There are other things you could do." It wasn't the same, and they both knew it; they both were the same as far as their passion for wrestling went.

It was all or nothing when it came to their careers.

"No. If I can't wrestle anymore, I'm done with the business entirely, Jon. I refuse to be a referee or a backstage technician or on the ring crew…fuck all of that. I'm a wrestler, a professional wrestler, and if I can't be that then…then I don't want to be anything at all." Delilah trembled, holding the back of her neck and squeezing her phone against her ear, wishing Blue were here to comfort her. Unfortunately, her big boy was in Cincinnati with his grandma because she couldn't make it there to grab him before coming home. When they were both home, they'd grab him then, but when only one could make it, they left him with Jon's mother. "It's my fault…I thought I could work through the pain, and I tried to rest as much as I could. But I'm the women's champion and I had to defend my title. I had to work…and I might've ended my career by not getting a second opinion sooner. There's nobody else to blame, it's on me that this is happening."

No shit. Jon was no stranger to having uncharitable thoughts because he was the first to admit he was a dick, but not when it came to her. He didn't realize it yet, but the nights of drinking, starting to have a beer or two during the day, were leading him down a stupid, dark path, and it would lead to a lot of 'fun' side effects. Jon would have no one to blame except himself when that happened. "I'll come home and be with you, doll. I'm sure Tony won't mind, and I could use a break." He realized that last part was probably the wrong thing to say, now mentally cursing himself out as he got up to go grab a beer from the mini fridge. "We'll get through this, Del, together."

"No. You have work set up for the next six months with other promotions. You can't break those contracts just because of what's happening to me." Delilah wouldn't let him give up all of his success for her, not when he'd worked so long and hard for it. Jon had something to prove, and unfortunately, he had to put his career above her right now. "I love you, but I swear to god, if you give all of this up because I was stupid with my career, I'll beat the hell out of you. Don't worry about me, just focus on yourself." A bitterness and edge took over her tone of voice, and she knew where it stemmed from. Jealousy. She was jealous that Jon could still do what she probably couldn't. "I'll be at Dynamite on Wednesday, so if you want, we can talk more then and hopefully, I'll have the results." Something told her she'd have to drop her belt on Dynamite because Delilah refused to simply relinquish it without at least one last match.

Delilah had this horrible little habit of making decisions for other people, and it had backfired on her spectacularly. Now wasn't the time to remind her about that, about her now estranged brother. Jon just let her think what she wanted and wallow in her misery, bitterness, and jealousy for now. If push came to shove and she did have to walk away, he'd go on a break or something because he knew, if he let her, she'd let their marriage die because she wouldn't be able to get past her grief of losing her career. If this ended between them, it wouldn't be from him not trying, not after everything he had done to get this woman in the first place.

"If you have to drop it for surgery, you gonna do it with Britt?" Because Britt was about the only person he trusted not to screw her up any further, even though technically it was Britt who had done this to begin with. Accidents happened.

"Yeah, I already talked to her about it, and she agreed to do it. I know she did it reluctantly, but she's the only woman I trust in that ring. She'll take care of me."

Britt was her best friend and would never do something to jeopardize her health and career more than it already was. Their marriage was already dying because Jon pushed way too hard, way too fast, and then his drinking addiction didn't help matters either. Going out night after night with Eddie Kingston didn't help matters either. She had gotten her own hotel room because she could no longer handle the rank stench of her husband from the amount of booze he consumed night after night. Just like he didn't want to fuck a junkie, she didn't want to fuck an alcoholic. If they didn't get their problems handled, their marriage would be over, and it would be on both of them, not just her and not just him.

On his end, their marriage was ending because she was too stubborn and desperate to realize that she needed to do something sooner and quit screwing around with her health. Delilah had come to rely on opiates, which was about the dumbest thing any wrestler could do in his opinion, to mask her pain. She was too stubborn and convinced she was right; it was her biggest downfall, her making these decisions and then literally living and dying by them. Like the one she had made about him years ago, it had taken over a decade for her to come out of that stupidity. In retrospect, she had been right about losing her brother, but that wasn't on her. Sami was a prick who had mangled his own sister's heart.

"So, I saw the pictures…" Jon might as well just get it out in the open, rip that band-aid off now instead of sitting and thinking on it, getting angry over it. "Were you gonna tell me at all, doll?"

"When I got the results back, yeah. I didn't…I didn't want to bother you with it until there was something to tell you. You're wrestling in these other organizations, so you have a great deal on your plate. I didn't want to add to it." Delilah could feel the tension over the phone, wiping more tears away and opened the bay window in their room, sitting on the bench to look out at the landscape of their backyard. "I know you're angry with me and you have every right to be. I should've come to you first, but…I didn't know how to tell you that my career might be over. And truthfully, I didn't need you telling me 'I told you so' or something like that. I know I fucked up and I'm stubborn as hell, and I've been stupid with my health, but so have you with all the drinking and partying, Jon."

See, he had taken the nice road and NOT done any of that, and here she was having to drag him into her blame game when this wasn't about him. "Sorry babe, when my wife began cutting me off because she didn't want to deal with it, I started slipping into my own bullshit. It happens." He retorted dryly, using his free hand to light up a cigarette, and inhaled deeply. "It's a two-way street, Delilah. When begging with you didn't work and you still went down opiate lane, I lost my shit and started fighting instead. You still don't get to make decisions for me. I decide what I want on my plate, not you. I WANT to be part of all this with you, I don't want you fucking doing it alone or thinking you need to because YOU think my career is more important. Don't fucking do that!"

"Your career IS more important, you fucking idiot! IT IS! We both agreed wrestling was number one to us, and we were each other's close second! You can still do this, so don't give it up because of my dumbass! Don't do it, Jon!" Delilah was getting worked up again, her temper flaring, and she clenched her fist tightly to rest over her heart. "You've worked your entire life for your career, to be where you are today! The blood, sweat, tears, and choices you've made all lead you to become the AEW champion. If you give it up, then you spit in the fucking face of everyone who has ever wanted to achieve what you have! You spit in MY face too, your wife, because wrestling is everything to me, and if I can't do it anymore, and you give it up because of me…that's a guilt I will never be able to live with! Do you understand me? I can handle this on my own, but I won't be able to handle my husband giving up what he's worked hard for in the business we both love because of me. This is one decision you don't have a choice on, I've already made it for you." She hung up on him and tossed her phone to the floor, burying her face in her hands, crying her heart out.

"THAT FUCKING SELFISH CUNT!"

There went Jon's cell phone, smashing against the wall, and he had to force himself not to clench his hands into fists or else he would wind up burning himself. Did she not think about how HE felt? How he would feel like complete garbage every time he left to go do what she loved?! No, because in her head she was a martyr who was doing it for 'them', not this was for HER. He needed a beer, the rage flowing through him, and had drained about half of it when her words about his drinking and partying came back to him. That beer went flying into a wall the same way the cell phone had.

"FUCK!"