Joe
It was a long, restless night and everything started to feel empty. I should've been home with my wife and our daughter tonight instead of laying inside of a hospital bed with an IV sedative inside of my arm.

I tilted my head to the side and looked out at the window to seeing a beautiful nightly view. Chloe always admired looking up at the stars that were shining in the sky, along with the breathtaking view of the moon. All I could ever think about was Chloe more importantly. She was everything to me and although I knew she was coming back to see me later today, I couldn't help but to feel lonely and I hated feeling like this.

I also worried about Dante having more henchmen and that they would've traveled all the way to our home and killed my family after hearing one of the henchmen saying that before I was sent into the hospital. I spent the rest of the night overthinking and I couldn't stop trembling at the thought of that happening.

I felt absolutely helpless while I laid back in the bed and gazed up at the ceiling with my hands intertwining against my chest. Loneliness was an understatement. However, I started to close my eyes and fell asleep for the night.

"Daddy! Daddy! I wanted to show you something!"

"Let's see it, sweetheart." I say, crouching down to my daughters size as she handed me a drawing of Chloe, her, and I all three together and even drew Zeus.

"This is beautiful, Alani." I warmly smiled, "Is that me, mommy, and Zeus with you?"

"Yes! We're a happy little family." She cheered. "I called it 'My Happy Family'."

"Yes, we are! And I'll tell you this, sweetheart; how about I take all of us out to Disneyland once I come back home from the ring? What do you say?" I flashed a smile.

"I'd love that, Daddy! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Don't thank me, Alani. I'm just more blessed to be your father and you're my little Princess." I smiled.

Alani then jumped into my arms and I pulled her close to me.

Suddenly, I woke up from my dream and realized that it wasn't a reality...yet. I was awoken to hearing the nurse calling out for me and my eyes started to slowly flutter open. The same nurse brought me a tray that contained some breakfast and another glass of orange juice to the side.

"Good morning, Joe. How are we feeling this morning?"

"I'm doing amazing." I smiled, "I just woke up from an amazing dream."

"Oh? What did you dream about?"

"My wife and daughter. I'm missing them a lot right now."

"Aw, that's so sweet."

"I know. I'm just excited to see my little girl grow up in the future because I know she's going to do amazing things once she's old enough."

"I can imagine." She says, "I brought you some breakfast and we heard from your wife, Chloe. She's coming to see you and she's also bringing your daughter, too."

"I appreciate you telling me." I flashed a smile.

"Of course! I have to get going to the other patients; but you take care, Joe." She smiled, "Also, we're gonna have another excercise like last night to make sure your body isn't used to laying in the bed after everything that's happened."

"That's completely fine with me, ma'am."

I watched as the nurse walked away and I pulled out my phone to receiving a text from Colby to call him. Without hesitation, I dialed his number and he answered within seconds.

"Joe, my man! What's up?"

"Nothing much, man."

He requested to FaceTime me and I accepted.

"I'm just doing some Cross Fit exercises right now and wanted to take a break." His eyes furrowed, "Um Joe, where are you at?"

"I'm in the hospital, man."

Colby's smile quickly faded as he looked at me with concern in his face through the camera.

"Oh God! Are you alright?"

"I'm alright. I'll explain more once I'm out because Chloe and Alani are coming over to visit me later today."

"Damn. I hope you get to feeling better soon, Joe."

"I am. I'm just currently resting right now."

"Look, whatever happened, man, you look like a semi-truck hit you out of nowhere."

I laughed off his comment, "I guess you could say that. I also underwent a massive surgery not too long ago, as well."

"Joe, you're scaring me man. What happened?"

"Alright." I paused, "I was shot in the chest, Colbs."

"What? Why? How?" He asked with widened eyes.

"Remember when Chloe and I dealt with a hitman?"

"Unfortunately, yes. But what does that have to do with anything? I'm so lost right now."

"Well after SmackDown, I went to drive back to Toronto to see Chloe and Alani until I was stopped by a lot of vehicles and they parked in a circle formation and refused to let me drive away. Apparently, it was Dante's henchmen. Somehow they found out about my location and decided to come after me; and I didn't know he had any henchmen involved. I killed Dante a long time ago because I thought he killed Chloe at the time she headed to the hospital, if you remember."

"Ah, I do remember that moment." He sighed, "Joe, I'm just glad you're alright. I'm gonna come and see you soon whenever I can."

"I understand, Colbs." I coughed, "I'm gonna let you get back to working out in the gym. I need to rest, but I will explain a lot more about the situation when we see each other again."

"Alright. Rest up, man."

We hung up the FaceTime call and I laid back in the bed, feeling exhausted and drained for awhile.

After a few hours passed, I rested more in the bed and woke up to the sound of my door opening and I flashed a smile as it was my beautiful wife and daughter making their way towards me. Chloe approached me with a warm smile on her face while holding Alani in the baby carrier.

"Hey babe!"

"Hey! I missed you so much, Chloe."

"I missed you too." She says, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing alright." I groaned, "Luckily, I'm making some massive improvements. One of the nurses insisted on staying with me for awhile and helped me get out of the bed a lot. She helped me stand on my own two feet like before and I walked for a moment before having to head back to the bed."

"That's amazing, baby!" She reeled me into a hug. "I was so worried about you the entire night."

"I was worried about you, too."

"How come?"

"Well for starters, I was worried that Dante might've had more henchmen and that they'd come into the house when you least expected it because I'm not there with you at the moment. I've been overthinking so much ever since I've been in here, Chloe." I sighed, "I don't want to lose you, Alani, or our dog."

"Joe. There's nothing to worry about, and I've had your cousins and even Emma spending the night with me from time-to-time whenever they can."

I smiled, "Good. I was worried that you guys were all alone."

She shook her head, "Nope, I couldn't put you through anymore stress than you already are."

I groaned out with small slights of pain around my chest area, "I'm still in pain, but I'm thankful that I'm still alive, babe."

"Trust me, I'm thankful too."

"Also, I had a dream about us and Alani."

"What was it about, if you don't mind me asking?"

"It was about Alani when she was in kindergarten and she was already starting to grow more confidence in herself. She came home from school one day and handed me a drawing and it was all of us and Zeus together and she presented it to the class and called it 'My Family'. I also promised to take her to Disneyland in my dream, too."

"That's something we've discussed before. We should definitely try it out sometime when you're out of the hospital."

"Oh, I'm planning to. I want our little girl to have the best life possible." I crooked a smile.

"She will, because she has two amazing parents who love her unconditionally."

We both glanced down at Alani as she was peacefully sleeping.

"Did you have any updates on when you're coming out of here?"

I shook my head, "Not yet. I'm supposed to find out later tonight."

"That's amazing. I hope that they can discharge you as soon as possible. The house feels so empty and weird without you there." She sighed, "Even the bed feels empty. It's hard for me to sleep because you're not laying next to me."

"I'm sure it does, babe." I looked down, "I hope that I can actually start walking on my own tonight and that I can come home tomorrow."

"Me too. I'd love nothing more but to hear that you're coming back home."

We took a moment of silence until I looked at her with a warm smile, "Hey, we're gonna be okay. I love you so much, Chloe."

"I love you too, Joe."

We both leaned in for a kiss and our daughter started to cry out shortly after.

"Give me a second, babe."

Chloe picked up Alani from the baby carrier and held her close, rocking her slowly back and forth in attempt to comfort her as she continued to cry.

"Shh, sweetheart. Mommy's here."

I couldn't help but to smile at how beautiful my wife looked as she held onto our child.

"Hey baby? Can I hold our daughter?"

"Sure!" She paused, "But what about your chest? I don't want you to injure yourself more."

"I don't care, baby. I wanna hold our little girl."

Chloe handed me Alani and I held her close into my embrace, "Hey Princess. I missed you so much. I promise you that Daddy's coming out as soon as I can and I want to take you and mommy to Disneyland when I'm feeling better."

I didn't care what any doctor or nurse had to say, I was going to hold onto my daughter regardless if it hurt my chest or not. I loved being a father, although the only downside was having to change diapers, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Alani was my daughter and seeing her and Chloe was enough to make me smile. I couldn't ask for a better, little family in my life.