"Some things go too deep
to be forgotten"
John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga

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"You have outdone yourself, Cena" I smirked as we left the nursery where his daughter slept.

I wasn't scheduled for Raw and while I would have gone anyway to accompany Nicole, Alanna was excited to meet Aria so I stayed behind with her.

"What I did was cry like a baby when I first saw her, but she is beautiful ain't she?" He smiled and I nodded as I knew the feeling all too well. To the world you were meant to show the tough exterior but once you held a creation of you in your arms you realized how vulnerable you were.

The first time I held Alanna was overwhelming, I had been young and quite nervous about it all. To be honest I was still a kid at heart and had no idea why we decided we wanted a family. But I couldn't be more happier that we had, it took me some time but I suppose I grew up. Grew up for the precious little girl in my life and the woman in my life. Both of them made me vulnerable, Alanna could make me do anything because she was my world and Nicole was right there beside her.

"Sure is..." I whispered as we entered the study.

Despite me insisting I would take Alanna out for the day Brie had insisted as soon as Aria fell asleep they would watch a movie together. Having peeked in on them after my jog, they had both passed out in the theatre.

"Let me guess, looking at her is giving you ideas" he smirked as we sat down and my eyes scanned the many shelves. They used to be filled with so many books and now half was filled with photographs of the happy couple and the rest of the family. I used to find it amusing how Brie had changed the uptight John so much but I wasn't immune to the charm of a Bella twin either.

I sighed recalling his question, "Not ideas that haven't already been in my mind since I fell in love with Nicole though"

"So you are saying all of it is in the future? Rings? Babies?"

"I'm sure I have told you before?" I frowned as my fixation with Nicole had led to me being delusional maybe. But now I had her so I wasn't sure why they doubted what my plans were. I suppose being pregnant had left Brie swinging to my side more but John seemed weary now.

"You have. But you can be a pretty indecisive guy. You are like a brother to me firstly but Nicole is my sister-in-law. I just want things to be what you intend them to be. We're all family and if by some chance things take a turn for the worst we will need to be adults." I could tell he was choosing his words very carefully but it didn't make me appreciate them any more.

"And why would they?" As I said, Nicole and I were end game so it didn't matter to me how many times she ran off. She would always come back to me and I would always be waiting.

"JJ mentioned the tension between you and Colby. I have always told you that's a battle you will never win." Of course he had let John in on what happened while he was in the delivery room with his wife.

"JJ needs to mind his own damn business" I scoffed. "And fuck Colby. I could care less for the guy but I am tolerating him for Nicole's sake."

He chuckled before shrugging, "I admit I wasn't his biggest fan but he is a nice guy. Sometimes leaving old resentment in the past is the best. I mean if you and Hunter can set things aside then surely..."

"What?" I half glared at him mentioning Hunter to me when he knew that name wasn't really part of conversation for me for the past year.

"You think I didn't realize you left his office when I came to get you to tell Nikki? We both knew that feud wouldn't last forever. He is family to you so if you can forgive the guy who slept with Nicole. Just do the same for Colby."

I sighed as I hadn't exactly forgiven Hunter but he knew me, better than John. For John I still believed I needed to put up this facade because well the guy was fucking perfect. With Hunter? He knew all the shit I had pulled back in the day and had gotten me out of trouble so many times I lost count. So even now it was difficult for me not to talk to him each week.

"Everyone is Team Colby I get it but bringing him up will just make me fucking hate it all more. And Hunter and Colby are two different people, I have never given a damn about Colby"

"I get it. Colby not only took your place in Hunter's team but also Nicole. "

I sighed, "Again Colby is totally different to me so he can't replace me. I don't need you making this some deep issue, John. I just don't like the guy and all the other facts are just bonuses. You have known me for so long, you know I could care less about anyone I work with. Its business, so just because I have no love lost for Colby doesn't mean its some fucking crime."

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"I'm just happy its over if I'll be honest." I sighed as I drove over in the limo with Colby while Stephanie decided it was better to take sometime off and work at headquarters.

"I would be too. If my wife and mistress were publicly going at it? That's asking for trouble and both of us know it." He chuckled.

"What did Nikki do about the loss?" I questioned as I had been watching with Randy who had of course left before the match ended. It was good I suppose as he would have probably attacked me in anger due to it. I still wasn't sure if she was scripted to lose or whether it just happened which was why I was slightly concerned.

"Nothing. You know we had to rush to be there for Brie." He shrugged and I believed him as if she had been upset he would have been biting my head off on her behalf.

I smiled, "cute kid."

"Cute kid or cute picture of Nikki holding the kid?" He smirked with a raised eyebrow and I chuckled yet again before staring out of the tinted windows.

"You know you need to stop doing that. You said I should let her go yet you're trying to get me to admit things whenever we are together."

He sighed, briefly glancing at his phone, "I just think that deep down she needs you and not in a way to fuck her or anything. I know that if she loves you that means you offered more than your bed. She was attached to you for the longest time and you helped her. You miss her too"

My jaw clenched before I could stop it and I could tell he noticed. It was easy for me to admit things when I was trying to manipulate someone but just confessing wasn't. Because if I was honest it didn't benefit me, it just left me vulnerable. Admitting things to a drunken Nicole was easier, either she wouldn't remember or she would just pretend she didn't. "I do, Colby. But Steph is finally at ease with the situation and I don't want to spark anything. If I go anywhere near Nicole, either it starts a fight or Randy is trailing not too far behind. And I feel like he could be coming around."

"Coming around to what?"

I smiled slighty, "Not hating my guts"

Nicole had been right, Randy had missed me and he was my friend for a number of years before Nicole existed in our lives. We tended to go at eachother when things got personal and we often took it to the ring, that was nothing new. He had fucking RKO'd Stephanie before and I forgave him. We were brothers so due to him being stubborn I knew it would start slow but as long as he was certain I wasn't fucking Nicole I was sure we would be okay.

"Well if that's true we are looking at a snake that has shed his old skin then"

"What do you mean?"

The crowd's voices let me know we were pulling into the arena, "As of late he has been weirdly tolerant of me. We were all at Cena's house last week and I did not receive one glare. "

I smirked, "Love does crazy things to people"

"He has been in love with her for like a year and now he is changing?"

I wasn't going to tell Colby about my little discussion with Randy regarding him at all. I found it amusing that he found Colby to be a threat when in all honesty I had felt the same at some point. I had even mentioned it to Nicole and she had laughed it off.

"Maybe its the birth of Aria. Fact is, I'll still be married to Stephanie no matter what and he has his sights set on having everything with Nicole. John is his best friend and Brie is her sister, it makes things abit more realistic don't you think?"

We vacated the limo and I slowed down my walk as he grabbed his suitcase before reaching me, "You have a point."

"You should know by now I always do."

"I have to say I missed my friend too. For awhile there you were a real pain in the ass" He pat my back and I stopped. Yes I had a huge fucking ego on me but I knew I had crossed many lines when I was blinded by my affair with Nicole. And especially when I had felt her drifting, I had demanded a lot out of him.

"I could say the same for you, champ. But in all seriousness, I think its best for everyone including Nicole if everything is put behind us. We are approaching a new year in a few months and then hopefully it will be like it all never happened."

***

"Hey Chris..." I began but frowned as I saw Nicole alone in the training room. She hadn't been here last week so I assumed that she had maybe opened the show.

She glanced up and sighed once she realized it was me. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing. I was waiting for Chris but maybe its best that he hasn't come in yet" she shrugged and moved past me out of the room but I tugged on her hand.

"Is everything okay?" I frowned as while she liked to believe I wasn't quite good at observations I had seen her at many lows and vice versa.

"Yes. Why wouldn't it be?" She narrowed her eyes defensively.

"Because I know you, Nicole."

She rolled her eyes in annoyance, something I was all too used to whenever I would stumble upon her. "Its nothing, Hunter."

I sighed as even after we ended things she always knew when I needed a pick me up talk or just a few words to get me in the right mindset. I appreciated it because I knew she was only concerned about me, not how what I did would reflect on the company. "It's not nothing because I know you and we are an hour into the show and you're still walking around like that. The Nikki I know is either in her gear or a tight dress to accompany her fearless attitude."

"Well maybe tonight I'm just not in the mood for the effort of being fearless okay?" She whispered and I immediately pulled her into the room and locked it.

"Hunter, let me out!"

"What? Its not like Randy will come running in here. I know he is off for the night."

"And how do you know that?" She frowned.

"Because I just saw Colby and he mentioned that Randy and Alanna were at John's home with Brie"

"Hunter, I don't have energy for a confrontation right now, what do you want? A thank you for always coming to my rescue when I've had a few too many. Or a thank you for me paying tribute to you in the ring cause guess what? Randy wasn't upset about it."

I didn't respond to her questions because I knew they were only brought up because she wanted a reaction. She wanted me to focus on those things instead of focusing on finding out what the problem was.

"Are you shunning me because its me, the man you loved for two years or because its me the man who is your boss?"

"Both. Now let me get out of here, now."

She attempted pushing past me but that wasn't going to happen, Colby's words briefly played over in my head. Deep down I wanted her to still need me even if it would come at a cost, "No."

She sighed and sat down on the bed and I sat down beside her while she stared blankly at the wall. Her eyes were puffy so it seemed like she had been crying and if what Colby told me was true then everything was going good on a family front so I wasn't sure what would have caused it.

"Nicole."

"Hunter." She shifted and stared down into her lap before running her fingers through her hair.

"You didn't pull out of the live event just to spend time with Brie and the new baby, did you?" She was a workaholic that I knew, and she also despised disappointing her fans when she was advertised. But pulling out to spend time with the little girl before things got hectic seemed plausible.

"Yes I did." A lie.

"Are you hurt?"

She remained quiet and I sighed as if she was hurt and I found out there was no way I could allow her to..

"Nicole, if you're hurt you can't be.."

"Hunter, I'm so close to making history please don't take this away from me" she croaked and stared over at me.

I closed my eyes and hopped off the bed and wrapped my arms around her. I kissed her cheek before pulling her close. I saw it in her eyes, the fear of having to give it all up. I remember when I had my quadriceps injury way back when, I was seated backstage in a wheel chair watching things go down. The worse thing for any athlete would be to be injured whether it be when you're at the top of grovelling. Time lost is time lost and so much could have been done...

"I won't but I'll set up a doctor for you. Get some meds, but after you make history you're done okay. You're more important than a streak." I bent down so I could stare into her eyes and get my point across.

"Okay" She nodded in agreement and I briefly moved always from her and paced the room.

"So what is the problem?" I sighed.

"My back, neck... Its been bothering me for awhile but if I'm honest I've just been pushing it off thinking it was the endless days as champion causing it. But I was home all week last week and I couldn't lift the weights I normally do."

I frowned as a neck injury wasn't good. Wrestlers retired because of neck injuries and she definitely knew that she couldn't risk it, "You know it could be serious."

"I know, Hunter. And I know what serious means, it means I have to give all of this up and I'm not ready to do that."

I sighed as I dismissed the part of me that loved the woman who was seated a couple feet away from me and briefly went into boss mode, "No one would be. But do you wanna keep acting like everything is alright and worsen the situation or after you make that streak you get it properly checked out by the doctors and if surgery is needed then so be it."

"Its my career, not yours. We both know unlike the men in this business the women have a shelf life and..."

"The women only have a shelf life because they feel like they don't want to do it anymore."

"I just don't want to disappear from this place when I am exactly where I want to be. Don't you fucking get that?" She shook her head and paced the room. "I'm finally happy, I have a good boyfriend. I have my champion, my family is happy. Brie just gave birth a couple weeks ago and this place... Its all I have and I love that. Because its my baby but if I can't wrestle anymore then my baby is gone."

"Nikki" I whispered as the tears fell down her cheek.

"I just love this place so much and I can't even deal with not being here."

She was thinking the worse case scenario, that her career would indeed be over, "You're acting like its that serious. We don't know that, have you been evaluated by the doctors?"

"No, Hunter. That's what I am here for."

I nodded but knew her having reached Chris who was obligated to tell Vince would have seen her probably stripped of the title tonight, "I have a doctor in Florida you can go to and whatever the verdict I will try to keep it quiet for as long as I can so that you can at least have your name in the history books as first place. Now why don't you take the night off which I'm sure your family will appreciate."

She sighed and I frowned as she didn't seem keen on heading home, "You're hiding it from them?"

"From everyone but you have to know everything" She rolled her eyes before roughly wiping her tears away.

I chuckled and kissed her forehead. "I don't want to lay this on them. Like I said, everyone is happy about the baby and then I come with an injury? Its always something with me and I actually wish it wasn't. I feel like I have lost touch with everyone in my life but the men because between you, Colby and Randy you are constantly squeezing into every aspect."

"And that's a bad thing?" I chuckled.

"No its not. "

"Thanks for the birthday text by the way" I smirked. "For what its worth I do miss spending time with you"

She smiled slightly before glancing around the four walls, "I know. Maybe if we hadn't fucked for two years it wouldn't have been this complicated but unfortunately we can't turn back time"

"Would you really?"

"You wouldn't?" She countered.

"I have never regretted our time together, have you?"

"No. You know that. It just got too messy and dark and I needed out. Why are we even discussing this right now?" She huffed.

"Because we miss each other" I honestly admitted, I hardly tended to be honest with her much these days unless she was drunk.

"Maybe. But I'm already dealing with trying to get Colby and Randy on the same page and adding you into that mix is something I can't deal with right now." She ran both her hands over her face and I agreed. Randy needed baby steps and he had made those steps with me but who knew how long it would take for any more.

I slowly rubbed her back before sitting beside her once again hoping her injury wasn't the end, "Its fine. I will stick to playing hero when you're wasted."