Prologue

'Would you look at her,' he thought to himself. 'Never thought she'd really be one of us. Not with the way she was when I found her.'

He sat back in his chair, sipping on the orange juice that he was hoping would help him slake his oncoming cold. It always started with those first few sniffles and that annoying, sporadic tickle at the back of one's throat. He had been counting on the extra dose of vitamin C to head the germs off at the pass when he opened the bottle, but now he barely tasted it. He had been sitting at a table in the corner of catering watching her for the past 10 minutes. She had been giggling with Jeff and using her spoon to sling peas into Kofi's open mouth across the table.

"Ooooh! Twenty points!" Jeff raised his hands in triumph and proclaimed in his lazy southern drawl.

"Twenty? She totally missed!" Phil countered. He was watching the scene from an arguably safe distance while drawing the trademark "X" across the knuckles of his wrist tapes. "Poor Kofi's gonna lose an eye!"

Jeff proceeded to put on his most innocent face. "But I thought we were aiming for his eyes!"

The scene sent her into another fit of giggles and he grinned to himself from across the room, shaking his head slightly at their antics. His coworkers had a way of bringing out the inner child in each other and he wouldn't have it any other way.

As he watched, he thought back to the person she was when he first met her and, oh, it seemed so long ago. Much longer than the year it had been. Or, maybe, year and a half? Who knew? So much had happened since then; some bad, some good, mostly confusing but well worth the trip. Back then, straight out of foster homes and abusive relationships with parental figures, she had been timid and untrusting, barely making it on her own in a city that showed no mercy to the orphans thrust upon it alone on their 18th birthdays. It amazed him that she had survived her childhood at all. The uncertainty, the abuse and the lack of love. He smiled to himself as he looked at her now. Her eyes sparkled as she laughed. She had gained weight in all the right places while color burned bright in her cheeks. Over the months she had grown stronger, developing a true sense of pride in herself. But most of all, she was loved. Oh, yes, John Cena truly and deeply loved his newfound little sister.