Sheamus was done, his part of the match was over. He walked out the arena as his tag partner's part of the gauntlet match took place. He was tired and needed some air, so he stood outside in the cool night before going to change clothes. It was a quiet night, but it was uncomfortably quiet.

Until he heard crying.

He looked around, but didn't see anyone. The crying got louder, as if getting closer, and then he saw a few shadows streak along the arena's outer wall. There was screaming and more crying, louder this time, and then came a small child running around the corner.

The child was the source of the crying and screaming, and Sheamus soon saw why.

Three men were running after her, two of them had lead pipes and the other had what looked like an axe. The child saw Sheamus and ran towards him, hiding behind him out of pure fear of the armed men.

The three men stopped a few feet away, eyes on the little girl hiding behind the wrestler.

"Well, well...hiding behind a normie? Pathetic." Said one of the men, twirling the pipe in his hand.

"Yeah, especially since you chose a wrestler to protect you. He's not an athlete, he's an actor." Added the axe-wielding man.

Sheamus was turning red in the face with anger. Yes, it was normal to hear people talk about the scripted parts of the WWE, but these men were armed and chasing after a child.

"Hand over the kid and nobody gets hurt." The man with the axe demanded.

"What do you want with her? You're armed and she's terrified of you." Sheamus glared at the men as he took a step towards them, motioning for the girl to stay behind him.

"The little freak was in our hideout eating our food." Replied one of the men with a pipe.

The little girl looked at the ground, ashamed. "I...was hungry...I don't have any food at home..."

"Little abominations like you shouldn't be allowed to eat or live anyway!" The man with the axe yelled at the girl.

The axe man prepared to push passed Sheamus, but had his arm grabbed roughly and was pulled away from the child. He was pissed. Freak and abomination were two words he hated.

Sheamus looked back at the little girl. "Close your eyes, kid."

As soon as she did, Sheamus simply waved his hand and sent a wall of fire towards the men which sent them running in fear. After they were gone, Sheamus turned back to the girl and picked her up.

"They're gone."

The girl opened her eyes and hugged the man who saved her. "Thank you. I...should probably leave now..."

"I don't think you should go anywhere by yourself. Where's your parents?"

"They...died...when our house caught on fire..." the little girl answered, rubbing tears out of her eyes.

Sheamus felt bad for the kid. He took her into the light to see her better, and then he felt even worse. The girl's hair was so dirty and tangled that it was hard to tell the color, her skin was covered in dirt and bruises, and her clothes were stained and shredded. She didn't even have shoes on. She had a wound on her head somewhere that was still bleeding, the blood was causing some of the dirt on the child's skin to become mud.

"How long have you been on your own?"

"I dunno..." the girl shrugged, then grabbed her shoulder in pain.

"Let's take you inside and have a medic look at you while I change clothes, ok?"

The girl nodded and curled up in Sheamus's arms as he carried her inside.

After taking the kid to a medic to get looked at, Sheamus went to the locker room to change out of his wrestling gear and into some regular clothes. On his way back to the medic, he made a call.

"Desi? Hey, I need a favor...I found this kid, she's maybe five years old...could you meet me at my hotel in an hour with some clothes for her. Her size? She's pretty small, looks like she hasn't eaten in weeks. Ok, thank you. Love you, too."

He hung up and went to check on the girl. She was sitting on an exam table with her dirty hair halfway brushed and pulled out of the way so her head could be checked for wounds and she was now wearing an oversized shirt and her face had been partly washed. A wound on her hairline and across the center of her head were cleaned and stitched up. Her silverish blue eyes were darting around the room anxiously until her eyes landed on her saviour.

"Mister! There you are!" She smiled.

Sheamus couldn't help but smile himself as he walked over to the kid. "What's your name, kid?"

"Ella. But everyone calls me Cinderella because I live in a burnt down house..."

Sheamus knelt down in front of the exam table so he could look the girl in the eyes. "Well, Ella...why don't you come with me? I'll keep those bad men away from you and you can take a bath and I have a friend that can give you some clothes."

Ella thought for a moment, then she nodded as her already large smile widened and she practically wrapped herself around Sheamus's neck.

Sheamus carried the child out to his car and strapped her into the back seat, then they were quickly on their way to the hotel.

~Moments Later~

Sheamus was waiting in the hotel lobby, holding Ella since she had fallen asleep on the way there. It wasn't long until Desi walked in and rushed over.

"Is she ok?" She asked, trying to get a better look at the kid.

"She's asleep, she'll be fine." Sheamus answered as they got into an elevator to go to his hotel room.

Three floors up and down a hall, Sheamus gave Desi the key to unlock to room door and they walked in with the sleeping child.

"I'll just let her sleep, we can clean her up in the morning." Sheamus said in a whisper as he placed Ella in the bed and covered her up. He then noticed the large gym bag that Desi had. "How much did you bring?"

"A bit." She answered with a bit of a smile. "Everything she needs in different sizes to see what will fit her. Shoes included, I even brought stuff for her to take a bath with."

"I think I forgot about your soft spot for kids, Desi." Sheamus kissed his girlfriend on the cheek and sat on the other bed in the room. "Staying the night?"

Desi nodded and placed the bag next to the bathroom door, then sat on the bed next to Sheamus.

"What should we do with her?" Desi asked.

"I'm not sure. We can't just put her back on the streets, not when a bunch of men were chasing her with weapons. I got them to run off, but I don't know if they'll try anything else."

"You ran them off? How? Did you...?"

"I just scared them, I didn't kill anyone. The way they acted...it's like the kid isn't even human." Sheamus looked over at the sleeping girl. "I know what it's like to be hated for being different. But she's so small and her parents are...gone..."

Desi wrapped her boyfriend in a hug. "We'll take care of her for a while, ok? Then we'll decide if we take her to an orphanage or we take her to Xavier's place...or if we just keep her."

"She's not a puppy, Desi. She's a human. But still...we need to figure something out."

"Let's sleep on it, ok?"

Sheamus nodded and laid down, Desi laid down as well and cuddled close to him. Sheamus couldn't stop himself from occasionally waking up to check on Ella, though, and he was starting to get the feeling that a lot was going to change soon.