After breakfast, John gave Paige his hotel key and told her and Sabrina to go on up. He told them he'd be back in about an hour as he had some stuff to discuss with a couple of the guys. When they got up to the hotel room, Sabrina went into the bathroom to have a shower. While she was in the bathroom, Paige sat down on the couch and thought about the guys she met at breakfast. When she had first seen Mark and Glenn she had been a little afraid of their size because of what happened the night before. After talking to them she realized they were very nice men. Chris and Adam were very nice as well and comical. There was also another guy at the table called Dave. He seemed very quiet, not saying much at all during breakfast. After he excused himself from the table, Paige had asked John if Dave perhaps didn't like her but John had said not to worry that he was normally a quiet person in general. She had to admit she enjoyed everyone's company and hoped she'd see them all again soon.
She was snapped out of her thoughts by a knock on the door. Figuring it was John coming back she opened the door to find Mickie on the other side.
"Hey Mickie. If you're looking for John he's not here right now." Paige said.
"Actually, I came here to see you. I was hoping that you would join some of us girls for a girl's night out tonight? We're going to a club to dance and stuff. Would you like to come Paige?" Mickie asked.
"Um, I don't know. After last night, I don't know if I want to go to a club any time soon. John told you what happened right?"
"Yeah, he told me. I'm sorry for what happened to you. I'm just thankful that John and the guys were able to help you. Listen, if you feel better we can make it a girls and guys night out? We'll talk to John and see if he and the guys would like to join us, that way you'll have someone there to protect you, alright?"
"I guess that would be ok. It's not that I don't trust you or anything I just don't know what I'd do if that happened again." Paige said sadly.
"It's not a problem really. I'd feel the same as you if it happened to me. We'll wait until John gets back and talk to him ok? I'll go back to my room and you tell John to give me a call and I'll come back over, alright?"
"Yeah, that sounds good. Thank you."
"Sure. Talk to you soon. Bye." Mickie said and then went back to her room.
"Bye." Paige replied and closed the door. She went and sat back down on the couch. Five minutes later she was sleeping.
Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Sabrina was sitting on the toilet seat looking at a picture of two little girls. In the picture the girls were standing in front of a Christmas tree surrounded by presents. She remembered the day the picture was taken. Her five year old sister had come into her room and bounced on the bed trying to wake her up. It had been Christmas morning and her sister loved that holiday. She loved Santa and all the presents that he brought her because she had been a good girl that year. Their parents always went all out for Christmas, buying them a bunch of presents. There were always decorations all over the house and they usually set the tree up on the first day of the month. Sometimes it was set up a little later depending on how busy they were. Christmas time was a big deal around the house because that was one of the only holidays that the whole family was together.
Their father was a salesman so he was gone almost all the time to different states. Their mother was an accountant for a big name firm in the city they lived. Needless to say, Christmas time was pretty much the only time the family was together. The only other holiday that happened was Thanksgiving. That morning they went downstairs and had their breakfast. Before they could open their presents they stood in front of the tree for a picture. That was one of the things that they loved about their parents, they were always taking pictures of them and putting them into a scrapbook for them to have when they were older. That would be the last picture that they would take however because a week later they were killed in a car accident on the way to the airport.
Their mother, Rebecca, always drove their father, Jim, to the airport and then she would go to work. Sabrina would go to school and her sister would go to a daycare until her mom went to pick her up after work. That morning, however, after dropping the girls off at school and daycare, would be the last time the girls saw their parents. From what she's been told, they were stopped at a red light and when it turned green they drove through the intersection only to be hit on the passenger side of the car by another driver who hadn't been paying attention to were he was going. The guy had been driving fast and trying to reach something on the seat beside him before he realized it he had run into something. As it turned out that something was another car that was carrying her parents. They died shortly after they got to the hospital. Nobody went into details exactly the extent of the injuries but Sabrina knew it was obviously bad enough to kill them.
Since they had no relatives other than their parents, they were put into foster care. Sabrina insisted that her parents would want them to stay together but that never happened. There was a family that wanted to take in her sister but didn't want two children, just one. No amount of begging and pleading and threatening to run away worked, so in the end they were separated. Sabrina went in and out of foster homes but when she was twenty she tried to find her sister, hitting dead ends every time. Finally, after ten years of looking for her little sister, she stumbles upon her in a club. She finally has her family back, now she just has to convince Paige that their sisters. Since Paige was only five when she was taken in by a family, she probably doesn't remember the first one she had, her real family.
While Paige and Sabrina were in John's room, John was up in Mark's room. He had told Paige that he had stuff he had to do but he really needed to talk to Mark and the other guys who were at the club last night. He had decided while they were at breakfast, after seeing Paige's reaction to everyone that they needed to talk about protecting her. To him she seemed like a very shy person and one who doesn't do confrontation very well. He knew that she had obviously gotten along fine before he came into the picture but after saving her last night he felt like he needed to be there for her, to protect her. That's why he came to Mark's room and why he asked Glenn, Chris and Adam to come to.
"Ok, guys. I know this is going to sound weird, especially coming from me, but I think we need to keep Paige with us. She still seems a little shaky around people and I want to make sure she's really ok before we leave her on her own again. Do you understand what I'm saying?" John asked them.
"Yeah, I do. I was watching her at breakfast also and she seemed scared for some reason. Like maybe someone was going to jump up and grab her. I also noticed that she wouldn't move from your side, John. I think someone is getting a little attached, eh? Replied Chris.
"I wouldn't say that, she's away from me now, isn't she?"
"Where is she?"
"In my room, where else?"
"My point, exactly." Chris smirked.
"Ok, point taken. Still, I'd rather her be attached to me than scared of me."
"Yeah, that's true. Ok so what do we do then? We can't always be with her we have jobs to do you know?" Asked Adam.
"I don't know. We've got to think of something." Replied John thinking.
Mark and Glenn, who had been silent until now, both spoke at the same time.
"Take her with us." The both said in unison and then looked at each other and laughed.
"Do you think she'd really want to be around a bunch of men all the time?" Asked Adam.
"We could always talk to some of the divas; they'd probably take care of her too." Replied Chris.
"Well, she's already met Mickie and I think she likes her. I'm sure a couple more divas would be okay too. Maybe Maria and Kelly?" John thought out loud.
"Yeah, usually wherever you find Mickie, you find the other two as well. I'm sure it will be fine and if nothing else one of us could pretend to be her brother or something. Another could pretend to be her boyfriend, that way some of the guys would leave her alone." Replied Mark.
"That could work. I'll talk to Micks the next time I see her. So, who's going to be her brother? I think it should be one of you two." Said John pointing to Glenn and Mark. "I mean who's going to mess with your sister?"
"That's true. How about this? Glenn here can play big brother and I'll play the good friend watching out for his little sister? That way we'll both be able to keep an eye on her. Sound good?"
"Sure, that sounds good. Now who's going to play boyfriend?" John asked.
"Uh, duh. Are you blonde now John? Who else would play boyfriend but the one guy she's attached too?" Replied Adam with a laugh.
"Ok, makes sense. Good thing I don't already have a girlfriend or I would have a lot of explaining to do." John laughed. "Do you think she'll go along with this? I mean I don't want to impose on her life or anything. She just seems so…I don't know."
"Fragile?" Glenn asked.
"Yeah, I guess that's the word I was looking for."
"She does but don't worry. Once you explain that we're just looking out for her I'm sure she'll be fine. Besides, I don't think she would trust anyone else but us anyway."
"Ok, well, I'll go talk to her now and I'll call you guys and let you know how everything went." John said before getting up to leave.
"Good luck, man." They all said in unison.
"Thanks, guys. Bye." John waved as he walked down the hall to the elevator.
Sabrina came out of the bathroom and noticed Paige sleeping on the couch so she got the extra blanket from the closet and put it over her. As she was looking at her and trying to figure out how she was going to tell her that they were sisters, there was a knock on the door. She figured it was John, seeing as how he gave them his room key. Going to the door she opened it and wasn't surprised to find she was right, it was John.
"Hey, how are you guys doing?" He asked her.
"We're fine. Paige is sleeping right now. I think the excitement of the last couple of days finally wore her out. So what have you been up to?" Sabrina asked him.
"Well, I've just been chatting with the guys and I need to talk to Paige about something but I'll wait until she wakes up. What have you been up to?"
Sabrina wasn't sure if she should tell John what she discovered or not. She knew she could trust him, especially after last night, but she wasn't sure if she should talk to him or wait and talk to Paige first. Deciding that getting John's advice first would be best she answered his question with one of her own.
"Can I talk to you about something?"
"Sure, what's up?"
"Let's go out into the hallway and talk so we don't wake up Paige, ok?" She asked.
"Sure, must be important."
"It is." Sabrina replied while the walked into the hallway. She wasn't sure how she should start telling him about her discovery so instead she handed him the picture she had been looking at. "Here, look at this and tell me what you see?"
"Ok." John studied the picture of two girls standing in front of a Christmas tree. They were both wearing their pajamas and smiling proudly for the camera. As he looked closer he could tell that the older one resembled Sabrina but he didn't recognize the younger one. "Well, I can see that this girl here," and pointed to the older one, "is you, but I don't know the other one. Who is she?"
"That's my sister. We were separated shortly after this photo was taken. Our parents died in a car accident and we were sent to foster care. The family that took in my sister didn't want two children so my sister got to go and I stayed and went to a different family a month later. When I was twenty I tried looking for her but kept running into dead ends. I'd finally given up hope on finding her until last night." Sabrina told him hoping he would get her meaning of 'last night'.
"Really? Wow, I'm sorry about your parents. So, how do you know you found your sister last night then?" John asked getting curious as to why she was telling him all this.
"I know because my sister's name is Paige."
"You mean the girl we helped last night is your sister? Does she know? How come she didn't say she knew you?" John's questions came one right after the other.
"First of all, yes. To your second question, no I don't think she does. She was only five when she got put in with another family so I don't think she remembers me or our parents. Obviously, that answers your third question."
"Wow, so you haven't told her yet?"
"No, I mean as soon as I heard her name last night I thought she was my sister. It wasn't until I started talking to her that I realized she was. She hasn't changed in the way that she's still shy around people. When she was a baby she didn't take to strangers very well and mom and dad had a hard time getting her to stay in daycare without throwing a fit. I just, I don't know how to tell her, John. What should I say?" Sabrina was starting to get worried about how Paige would react to the news.
"I honestly don't know. I guess you just sit her down and show her this picture. Tell her the same thing you just told me. Although, I guess this kind of puts a damper on my plans." John sighed.
"What plans are you talking about? John, you don't have some ulterior motive for rescuing Paige, do you? Sabrina asked starting to get upset.
"Of course not. I rescued her because no one should ever go through that. I was talking about the plan that the guys and I thought of to keep her safe. We were going to ask her to travel with us for awhile to make sure she's safe and feels ok to stay alone again. I don't think she's ready to be by herself. You saw the way she was at breakfast this morning. Anyway, Glenn was going to pretend to be her brother and Mark was going to watch out for his best friend's sister. I was going to uh….you know pretend to be her boyfriend so nobody would bother her. I mean who would want to go after Glenn's sister? Especially since she's also Mark's friend, right?"
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that. I know better. Yeah, I guess I can see why you'd want to protect her. Do you really think she needs it though? I mean she's obviously gotten along fine by herself until now. Has something happened to make you think she needs protecting?" She was getting worried about her sister.
"I think she needs someone to watch over her right now. I think she's scared and she has every right to be. Do you realize what could have happened to her had we not helped? She could have been hurt way more that she was. I don't want to see her hurt. I know you're her sister but I'm sorry her feelings have to come first for me. I may not know her at all, but I feel a connection to her that I can't explain. I believe that I was meant to be at that club at that time. Do you understand what I'm saying? I don't want problems especially with you, Rina, but Paige has to come first, ok?" John hoped she understood what he was trying to say. He hadn't lied; he did feel a connection to Paige. He only hoped Sabrina wouldn't try and use the big sister card to over rule him, so to speak.
"I realize what could have happened and I'm thankful that you and your friends were there for her. Yes, I know her feelings come first but don't push mine aside. We may have been separated for twenty years but that doesn't mean I don't love her. Look, if Paige agrees to your plan then I'll go along with it to, ok? Just please try to consider how I'm feeling in all of this."
"Ok, I'm sorry I didn't mean to make it sound like you don't matter. I'll try and be more understanding of where you're coming from. Besides, if Paige goes along with this than just think how much closer you'll get to the Deadman?" John joked trying to lighten the conversation they were having.
Sabrina laughed and hit him on the arm. "John, you promised you wouldn't say anything. You haven't have you?"
"Of course not. I promised I wouldn't so I won't. That doesn't mean I can't tease you though."
As John and Sabrina were finishing up their conversation in the hallway, Paige was just waking up. Rubbing her eyes she realized she'd fallen asleep. She got up from the couch and realized the room was empty so she went to the bathroom but it was empty too. She started to panic thinking that they'd left her here on her own. "John? Sabrina? Where are you?" She called going to the door. She opened the door to find them standing in the hallway.
"Oh, there you are. I thought maybe you'd left me." Paige said sadly.
"Of course not. We'd never leave you, don't worry." John said.
"I know I'm sorry. I just woke up and the room was empty. I overreacted I guess. How long have you been back?"
"Not long, really. You were sleeping so we decided to talk out here. Come here." John said holding his arms open.
Paige walked into them without hesitation and took the hug that John was offering. She felt so safe in his arms that she didn't want to leave him. She knew, however, that she would have to eventually. After all, he had a life and a job to get back to. He didn't need someone like her tagging along with him so she would just enjoy his company while she had it. She knew she wasn't the most gorgeous woman there was and she knew from looking at him that he must have women throwing themselves at him all the time. Ever since he had saved her from that man last night she was scared to be away from him, even for a minute. She also knew that reality would come back and she'd have to go back home by herself and lock herself in her apartment again. She didn't want to think about that right now, though.
"There you feel better, now?"
"Yeah, thanks. I'm sorry I don't mean to be so clingy. You must be getting tired of me, huh? I guess I should go home soon. First, I want to thank you for saving me last night. If not for you I don't know what would have happened to me. Oh, before I forget, Mickie wants to talk to you about something." Paige replied looking up at John.
"You're not clingy and no, I'm not getting tired of you so don't even think that, ok? I'd rather have you clinging to me than some bimbo who just wants to hang on me for who I am. You never have to thank me for saving you any man with feeling would have done the same thing. I just happened to be in the right place and the right time, that's all. Now, what does Mickie want to talk to me about?" John asked her.
"She invited me to a girl's night out at a club but I told her I didn't know if I could go, you know, after last night. So she said we could make it a girls and guys night, if it was okay with you and your friends. She said to call her when you got back and she'd come over and talk to you about it."
"Well, do you want to go out tonight? If not, we can find something else to do. I think it would be good for you to get to know some of the divas. Look, you and Sabrina go back in the room and I'll go over and talk to Mickie and work something out, ok?" John said looking at them both.
"Alright, you won't be long will you? I'm sorry that's none of my business. You can take as long as you want. I don't know why I asked you that. I mean it's not like I'm your girlfriend or anything. I have no right to keep tabs on you." Paige kept babbling until John stopped her by putting his hand on her arm.
"Hey, Paige. It's ok. I won't be long. I have something I want to talk to you about anyway, so I'll be back as soon as I can. Now, you and Rina go back into my room and talk and I'll be right back." John said giving Paige a smile.
"Ok, see you in a bit." Paige said smiling back at him shyly.
While John went to see Mickie, Paige and Sabrina went back into the room to talk. Sabrina wanted to tell Paige about them before John got back so she sat Paige down and started talking.
"Listen, Paige, there's something we need to talk about. I really don't know how to say this." She was starting to feel very nervous. Would Paige believe her? Would she accept her into her life? She wouldn't know the answers until she told her.
"What's wrong Sabrina? You look nervous about something."
"Um, yeah. Here take a look at this picture for me?"
"Sure." Paige took the picture from Sabrina and stared at it. She could see two very happy girls on what looked to be Christmas morning. As she looked closer she could clearly see the resemblance between the older girl and Sabrina, so she assumed that was her at a young age. She looked at the other girl and thought she recognized her as well. She wasn't sure but the little girl looked similar to herself. She looked at Sabrina confused, "who are they?" Paige asked her.
"Well, the older girl is me and the younger girl is my sister. Her name is Paige." Sabrina said looking at Paige for her reaction.
"You mean, this is me in the picture? How is that possible I don't have a sister?"
"Well, when you were five our parents died in a car accident and you went to live with a foster family who eventually adopted you as their own. I kind of went from family to family but when I was twenty I searched for you but always hit dead ends. Then I saw you in the club last night and when I heard you say your name, I knew that you were the sister I'd been searching for."
"I don't know what to say. I always asked my parents if they were going to have more but they said that I was the light in their life and they didn't want anymore lights. I grew up thinking that I would never know what it was like to have a brother or sister. I'm sorry, it's going to take a little while for me to adjust to this I guess." Paige said looking at Sabrina, her sister.
"It's ok take all the time you need. We've got the rest of our lives to catch up on each other's life, alright? We'll just take it one day at a time. Right now, I want to know how you're doing after last night? I'm also wondering if you have feelings for John?" Sabrina asked hoping she wasn't overstepping her boundaries right now.
"I'm doing okay, considering. As for John, well….." It was at that moment that there was a knock on the door.
A/N: I hope everyone's enjoying the story. I'm going to try and get a chapter up each week.
Stay tuned for more…….
