Swinging over to the kids'

Kayla jumped off Bob's lap and went over to the game system and held it up.

"This is the Wii." Kayla said.

"It's a game system, Randy happens to be obsessed with it as much as the kids are." Courtney said.

"OH," Elaine and I said in stereo. NOW we understood. Same way the refrigerator is the icebox. Same way the car is the Buick, the trucks are the Tonkas and the dolls are the Barbies, the game thing is the Wii.

"Now I've got it."

"Yeah, there's no pee involved," I whispered to Elaine, who smirked at me. At least a light of understanding went off in our aged eyes.

"Mommy had to buy it after Daddy broke the first one Auntie Elle got him." Jake said.

"Randy couldn't figure out how to set it up and connect it to the tv so he got frustrated and broke it." Courtney said.

"We went through four Ataris," Elaine said. "You're not telling me something I can't relate to."

"And a banister," I added.

"And a banister," Elise echoed, nodding sympathetically to Courtney.

Now I didn't want to touch the damn thing because I might break it on accident. "I'll watch you do it."

"Show us the I-talian you beat your Daddy with," Elaine encouraged, now getting the hang of this. I grinned.

"Okay." Jake said as he grabbed the remote and started playing the game again.

Courtney chuckled then took Max and burped him before she lied him down on a blanket in the playpen. She kissed him on his head before she watched him fall asleep.

"Pete always go down so easy?" I asked Courtney as the baby dropped off like a ton of bricks, when Drake got into his game and Mikayla was seemingly in the lead. Elaine got off the couch and went to sit beside the playpen, and her eyes were all soft. She must have been thinking back to when our three were this little.

"Yeah which is still a surprise to me since you had to stay up for hours to get Kayla and Jake to sleep when they were babies." Courtney said.

Kayla continued playing with Jake until she was in 2nd place. She frowned then smacked the controller out of Jake's hands.

"Hey!" Jake yelled before he went to grab his controller but Kayla kicked it under the couch.

"You'd be surprised, Randy was the easiest for us. Becka and Nathan fought like lions before they'd drift to sleep," Elaine said as she crawled over to get the remote back from under the couch.

I was pretty much oblivious to this round of fighting because it really wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Squabbling was normal. The Ortons aren't robots...to those who think my son is one, shut up. I've heard the crap talked about how he speaks. He speaks just fine, thank you. Robot my ass.

"Well Randy certainly likes his sleep. He hates if he ever has to wake up before noon." Courtney said with a chuckle.

Jake got down and tried to reach the controller.

"He's got to sleep when he can get it," I mused, thinking back to how hectic my schedule used to be and my son's almost seemed like paradise compared to mine. He actually got consecutive days off, sometimes. Not many, but some.

He also made in one quarter's royalty check what I made in my best year. The money was much better nowadays and for that, we Ortons were grateful. Courtney wouldn't have to pinch pennies until they screamed, when arenas weren't selling as they should, nor would she have to learn how to make ten jars of peanut butter and twenty loaves of bread seem appealing in a lean couple of weeks.

I glanced at Elaine who seemed to be thinking back on old times, and I felt a twinge of regret for a minute, but there was nothing else I could've done. We tried to steer our boys clear of the life, but it beckoned them. We both found our glances going to Courtney, not probing glances but wondering if she was okay, juggling three young ones under the age of 4, with all the diapers, all the sleep patterns, and the lack of time to herself.

"You need us to step up a bit more?" I asked.

"You both step up a lot already. Randy jokes around that Elaine kidnapped the kids because she has them whenever we're not home even if it's just a trip to the grocery store." Courtney said with a chuckle.

"I love Grandma's apple pie." Kayla said with a wide smile.

Elaine blushed and smiled over her granddaughter's praise of the legendary pie, but I shook my head. "If it ain't enough, say so. They can always spend a night or so a week over, and anytime during the day should you need it." I was starting to think about maybe hiring somebody to come in, maybe a college girl, to play with the kids so Courtney could slip out and get her nails done or whatnot. We were professionals at budget stretching so it wouldn't be a big deal to us, but could mean the world to Courtney's sanity.

Elaine should know, since she rarely ever got a break with our three. I could see her nodding along with what I was saying.

"That means a lot but after some recent events I'm not too ready to go out anywhere without my kids with me." Courtney said.

"Grandma can you make apple pie now?" Kayla asked.

My eyebrows probably shot so far up that the kids might've thought they became part of my hairline. Recent events? Elaine looked at me and I nodded.

"If your mama doesn't mind us using her kitchen," Elaine said, glancing at Courtney and ready to take the children in there. If there were no apples handy, she could make a mock apple pie using Ritz crackers. Elaine was willing to get the little ones out of earshot while I asked about these recent events.

"Does my boy know about this?" I asked quietly, not letting on that I was worried. Kids sense that.

"I don't mind at all." Courtney said.

Once the kids were the kitchen she sighed.

"He's been through it all along with me." Courtney said.

Elaine nodded and led the little ones out. She looked thirty years younger with a little one on each of her hands as they headed toward the kitchen, even with the tension rising.

I was genuinely shocked when Courtney said what she said. I prided myself on my boy being able to talk to me about anything but apparently this might not be the case this go 'round.

"I don't mean to sound ignorant, but what's goin' on, little girl?"

"My dad was released from jail a week ago and...he somehow found out that Randy and Jake were at the airport. Jake ran out of some store Randy and him were in and my dad grabbed Jake then ran out of the airport." Courtney said starting to get tears in her eyes.

"When Randy found Jake, Jake was in my dad's trunk and unconscious. Jake could have died." Courtney said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Not many people knew what the little 'clicking' sound I sometimes made when I walked is. Maybe they thought I carry a box of Tic-Tacs. Randy and Becka know, but Nathan doesn't. Neither does Courtney. Courtney's tough, but she's seen enough, we felt, and so we protected her from knowledge of my heart condition. I manage it.

But Elaine poked her head out of the kitchen as she heard the clicking and saw me reaching for the bottle of nitroglycerin tablets from my pocket. My face became devoid of color for a moment before turning a dark red.

"He did what," I said, my tone deadly and if any Orton fan...my son's fans, not mine...saw me right now, they'd see that his anger was no gimmick. It was a mirror of mine. When my family was threatened, it was a direct threat I took seriously. I love Courtney like my own daughter and we've never looked at her in an ill manner because of what her father's done. We weren't about to start doing it now, either. But now that our grandson had been hurt...

"You need to pack your bags and come stay with us," I insisted. "And I should kick my damned son's ass for leaving you here alone!" Autograph signing, my ass. I could wring his neck!

"My dad's dead! He's not going to be coming near me ever again so I don't need to go anywhere. It's not Randy's fault either. I keep everything I feel bottled up so it doesn't effect my kids or anyone else. It's not Randy's fault, it's more mine then it's his." Courtney said before she went upstairs, wiping her tears away as she did.

Kayla peeked her head out of the kitchen.

"What's wrong with mommy?" Kayla asked.

I was shocked, and Courtney's leaving the room, well, I'd just swallowed my pill and my knee was no good on those stairs. She really didn't give me a chance to digest what she'd said, then respond to it, not by how she took off. Kayla's peeking out had me at a loss for words.

"Come in the kitchen and help the children with the pie, Bob," Elaine said, knowing damn well I don't know a pie crust from a pork rind, but I went in with a nod so she could go up to Courtney.

Elaine moved with grace and was soon on the second floor, knocking gently at Courtney's door. "Could I see you, honey?" she asked, her motherly tone gentle and soothing.

Courtney looked at Elaine as she sat on the bed then nodded.

"Sure." Courtney said.

-----------

"I didn't get an answer to my question." Kayla said.

"You want to talk about this, honey?" Elaine asked, the same way she would ask Becky or Nathan or Randy. She considered Courtney her own. She sat beside her and took her hand.

__________

Bob looked down at his little granddaughter. "Your Daddy pissed her off," he blurted out. Hey, it worked with his kids when they were little. Daddy was always pissing Mommy off. And Granddaddies weren't supposed to piss anybody off, so he blamed Randy.

"It's not Randy's fault he had to leave. He wanted to stay but I wouldn't let him." Courtney said.

------------------------

"Uh oh Daddy is going to be dead when he gets home." Kayla said.

"I don't understand," Elise said, and asked Courtney, "Could you tell me why signing his name on papers forced him out the door?" She was feeling very much like the lioness cub and was angry at Randy for leaving Courtney alone with the children in light of the circumstances

____________________________________

"Yup," Bob said, with a nod to his granddaughter. "But it happens to everybody's Daddy a million times over. It's okay."

"Because it's his job and he's there because of the fans. I'm not going to take an opportunity away from a fan to meet their favorite superstar. No one's in the hospital so he can be there." Courtney said.

--------------------

"How do we make the pie?" Jake asked as he grabbed the flour but then accidentally dropped it on the floor.

"Good going." Kayla said as she threw some flour on Jake's face.

"It was an accident." Jake said with a glare before he threw flour back at Kayla.