Little bit more information about the dreaded mother-in-law in this one plus some more Roman because I think we all know that he is awesome!

Mandy, Glad you liked it, I loved writing that last chapter because I can totally see Dean as being one of those big tough guys that turns into a bit of big kid when they're drunk/hurt.. Some more cuteness in this one coming up! Hope all is well with you and your family *hugs*

LunaticxLass, Yay, so happy you loved concussed Dean as much as I do, he kind of goes through the emotional wringer in this one especially where his mom is involved. I like writing him vulnerable sometimes though. Even big men have their little insecurities.

Wolfgirl2013, Thank you, got some more cute Dean and Lauren moments coming up and some more nuggets about Mama Ambrose who will be getting to have her turn soon too!

Minnie1015, Concussed Dean is cute, but then there are a lot of Deans to choose from. Comforting Dean, angry Dean, lunatic Dean, sarcastic Dean, sexy time Dean etc. etc. I think for this chapter I'm mixing in a little bit of sarcastic Dean with some comforting Dean too. Enjoy!

ShieldGirlBecky, Yep, going to take more than a murky past to put our girl off her hunky man. But Mama Ambrose might be a bit of a challenge to put it mildly and Dean's hometown isn't exactly going to make it easy on her as well. All of that coming your way soon!

FreakinLunaticsYard, Aww, thank you so much. I'm so pleased that you're so invested, I love writing this couple, it's like putting on a comfy old sweater even if I do make things hard for them at times. Mama Ambrose is going to be fun when she finally pitches up I can promise that!

Ohana1337, Well, I figure I can balance the action chapters with the occasional sickly sweet couply one so that was what that last one was and I'm super glad you liked it because with everything I put them through, I feel like they need it sometimes, especially with the rest of this story!

Labinnacslove, Yep, who wouldn't want a concussed Dean nuzzling in their lap smelling all fresh from the shower?! Besides, I figure if he was ever going to fully let his guard down then it would have to be when he was basically knocked out!

Skovko, He is adorable when he's slightly stupid, or at least in my take he is! Interesting question too, because the whole issue of what he may or may not have said to her comes up in this one but you'll have to read on to see how he/she/they handle it.

AngelsDestiny22, Yep, Lauren and Dean are never gone for too long! Glad you're happy to have them back. Good news on the engagement front too because people are going to find out in a couple of chapters time and there will be drama!

Time for the next morning...

Ninety Nine Problems And His Mom Is One

Being as how my own unhappy brush with concussion had taken me a good two weeks to put right, I had braced myself for Dean to be sluggish and bewildered for what I assumed would be a good long while, so was therefore both over the moon and astonished when he woke me the next morning like nothing had been wrong and with a plate of pastries he had ordered from room service figuring that I would probably want breakfast where I was.

His lips had grazed my cheek half-buried in the covers,

"Rise and shine baby."

I had blinked at him,

"D-Dean?"

"Who else would it be? You been steppin' out on me?"

In an instant he had been unmistakably him and I had surged from the sheets and thrown my arms hard around him with an actual unhidden sob of relief.

"Oh thank god, you're okay."

"I'm always okay."

But he had brought his arms up and returned the hug anyway, smoothing his rough palm over my hairline as I had trembled against his chest and even cried a little bit.

"I thought – I thought – ,"

"Gonna take more 'n that to break me, tombstone piledriver huh? That big crafty fuck."

Evidently at some point while I had been sleeping, he had been up and busy watching the match back, since I figured he probably couldn't remember too much of it or possibly any of it which would have in no way been a surprise. My suspicions had been confirmed when he had tucked his fingers beneath my jawline and then lifted my head up with a look of concern,

"I saw him knock you over, he hurt you?"

"No, I'm okay."

"You sure about that Princess?"

I had nuzzled in close again and then blown myself a long breath of relief out as I had rubbed my face in over his shirt and revelled in the feeling of his arms firm around me and present and totally back in control,

"Uh huh, I'm sure."

Dean hadn't seemed too convinced by my answer but he had at least let it go before the pastries had gone cold and by the time I had munched my way through one – okay two – of them, I had been brighter and happier and feeling more myself again, but still pumped up with enough protective instinct that I wasn't prepared to let him out of my sight and which was therefore the reason that I looked up in a panic as he changed into his sweat pants and grabbed up the key card,

"Wait, where – where are you going?"

"Down to the gym in the basement,"

"Wait, I'll come too," I scrambled up with purpose from the covers but managed to get them caught round my leg then very nearly face planted into the carpet before stumbling free and crashing into his chest.

Dean raised a knowing brow and then gently swept my hair back,

"I'm fine, I fuckin' promise."

"I know, I – um – want to work out."

"You?"

"Uh huh, I had two pastries remember?"

I patted my belly to make the point clear and my fiancé rolled his eyes but then snorted a little before pressing me towards the bathroom,

"You got five minutes to get changed."

I knew from experience that he probably wasn't kidding and so scuttled straight past him to get myself freshened up and to splash some water over my features before finishing off with a burst of underarm spritz. Frankly I thought I was moving pretty speedily and so smirked at my fiancé as I hustled back into the room and hauled my workout pants out of my suitcase,

"How long now?"

"Forty seconds Princess."

Damn.

I hopped on one foot as I struggled into my leggings, trying my best to glare across the room,

"You know I think I might prefer you being broken because you're way less grumpy and bossy to me. Honestly you were saying the sweetest things ever last night and being all cuddly. Do you have Kane's number anywhere?"

In my own crazy way I was trying to be humorous and for the most part my fiancé tended to get my bad puns, but for whatever reason that particular chirpy zinger launched across the room and then fell pretty flat as instead his brows knitted in like they were wary and his blue eyes flashed,

"What did I say?"

"Huh?"

I was halfway through trying to pull on my sports top when he fired out the question and so managed to miss the words and in response to it he threw a look up to the heavens, then crossed the room towards me to help untangle my twisted straps.

"What sort of shit was I sayin' to you last night?"

"You mean you can't remember?"

"Not as much as I would like."

In a flash I got why he was suddenly frowning and why his earlier happy mood had tapered off because evidently he was worried he had let loose something terrible or revealed some grim secret he had planned on taking to the grave and I shrugged in reply in an attempt to sound casual,

"Um, I'm not sure, but you – uh – you touched my boob."

Dean wasn't buying it,

"Princess."

Ugh.

Here goes nothing.

"You mentioned you sometimes were – um – kinda forced to sell drugs but that you totally hated every second of doing it and it's okay because I believe you and I'm not going anywhere okay?"

My explanation came out as a hasty little gabble because I was frantic to let him know that it hadn't changed a thing and that my reverence for him was as solid as ever which I underlined by stepping closer and then pressing up a kiss. It landed on his jaw bone alongside his hidden dimples and then was joined by a second longer pucker as well as I tried to pepper him out of his reverie but ended up nowhere.

"Dean, please talk to me."

Instead he blinked back for several seconds and then heaved a weary sigh out and began to scratch his neck before shrugging his shoulders way to loosely,

"Guess mom would have told you anyway."

"You said that part too."

"Was there anythin' else?"

"Nope but even if there had been it wouldn't have mattered, not to me."

I physically pulled his arms up and around me to emphasize the point that I loved him no matter what and was rewarded when he responded by hauling me in close to him and then laying his cheek across the top of my head,

"Don't deserve you."

"You never will either, remember that."

Luckily on the second time my bad humor triumphed since my fiancé snorted roughly then patted my butt, before turning me briskly in the direction of the corridor and pushing me forwards,

"Come on baby, gym."

For the most part the hotels that we tended to stay at were simple little places without any thrills, so therefore having a full workout room in the basement turned a humble establishment into a palace in a flash and was particularly true of the gym we walked into which had brand new equipment and punch bags and everything else and also included a bright eyed Roman who greeted us with a nod,

"See, I told you he'd be fine."

Dean snorted back,

"You two been talkin' about me?"

"Only about that extra hard head of yours uce."

Briefly I wondered if he too had compiled his knowledge of Dean's crummy childhood from bewildered fragments he had heard, but pushed that thought back as I turned towards the treadmills and let them get on with their weight lifting and squats. Had Seth been there he would have had us all lunging and crossfitting like idiots until we had collapsed in a heap at which point he had always barked in confusion and then launched into a lecture on our general health.

In the moment I really stupidly missed him.

Him –

Not the exercise.

I hadn't been missing that at all.

But what I had missed was the way he had rolled his eyes at me whenever I had said something truly Lauren style and then tried to fight the ghost of a smile back and pretend he was frustrated rather than give into it and laugh. I missed the way he had always been so antsy and had been the frenzied engine that had spurred on his team and most of all I missed how much he had loved us and had moved mountains for us all and a million other things.

Ugh.

In response to a sudden twinge of emotion that I wasn't keen to let out all over the gym floor, I turned the treadmill up a little higher and then started to pound out a couple of miles. In general terms running had never been my strong suit and many times my style had been mocked by the boys, who had likened my technique to an uncoordinated ostrich, but which they had slowly grown used to throughout the many months. Besides which I knew that exercise was helpful when it came to working stress or pent-up tension out and given the last few weeks oh boy I needed it and so I kept on going ignoring the looks.

Mom.

Her face popped into my head so suddenly that it made me seize up and nearly lose my step –

"Crap."

Dean looked up from the punching bag,

"Princess?"

"I'm okay."

"You sure 'bout that clumsy?"

"Uh huh."

I wasn't exactly lying to him on that point, because in the physical sense at least I was better than I had ever been, but on the mental side though it was a little more sketchy and with very good reason.

Huge reason in fact.

In three weeks' time it would be the one year anniversary since my mom had finally slipped away from the world and the knowledge of that managed to both sadden and startle me because it felt like it hadn't been that long in the least, but at the same time it also felt like it had been forever and I honestly couldn't fathom how to marry those two things up.

How could so much have happened since she had left me?

How was it possible to still miss her so much?

Deep inside I guess I had secretly been hoping that meeting my future in-law would help to bridge that maternal gap and that maybe in being allowed to meet Mama Ambrose I would fall into the arms of a second mother figure to show me love. Evidently not though. Dean had made that patently obvious and so instead I was suddenly staring along the barrel of more strife and a very unhappy family reunion that was already turning my man half crazy when he hadn't so much as trampled the borders of his hometown. I blew out a sigh and then glanced back towards the readouts before blinking in surprise –

Huh?

I had covered nearly five miles and in my world at least that qualified me for a breather or perhaps a brief nap or a big slice of cake and so I turned off the treadmill and then wobbled towards the comfort of the basement's trusty vending machine, where I promptly pressed the button for a full fat hot chocolate which was lessened in terms of pleasure by having no mini marshmallows.

Damn.

Dean was already smirking at me a little as my cheeky hot beverage was all poured out and by the time I had tottered a path back towards him, it had turned into a grin and then a chuckle as well, like he couldn't believe the levels of my crazy but which was pretty ironic coming from him.

"Princess – ,"

"What?"

"Is that a fuckin' hot chocolate?"

Roman too had stopped his workout and was snorting at me fondly from above a pair of dumbbells that probably weighed as much as a European car. Dean had at some point taken his shirt off and I lost myself briefly in the lines of his chest and the golden tones and the low dip of his hip bones and therefore replied in a bashful splutter like a kid,

"Um, yep."

"Didn't you just get through with runnin'?"

"Why do you think I'm even drinking this?" I took a coy sip and then responded further by sticking my tongue out and in a cheeky little movement that made my fiancé step in close and then press his mildly sticky abs up against me as he nuzzled his nose alongside my earlobe and smoothed his broad hands to a point low on my back.

"Princess, what am I ever gonna do with you huh?"

"Anything you want," I purred back suggestively and he puffed a needy breath out then grazed his lips over my cheek in a sweet little kiss that made me flood with instant happiness.

"You goin' back up to the room baby?"

"Uh huh,"

"In that case maybe we could shower together?"

I totally liked the sound of that and especially since our haphazard cubicle sharing incident the night prior had by no means been the sexy kind I tended to want and besides which we still had a good two and a half hours before we were supposed to be at the arena for the show. I bit my bottom lip in the way that sent him crazy and then trailed my finger down his abs,

"See you in five?"

He slapped my rump playfully,

"I'll be right behind you."

I squeaked but then couldn't really move fast enough, because the thought of some longed for heavy petting with my fiancé was the best way I knew of to let it all out and pretend that I wasn't badly grieving for my mother or worrying about his own apparently wasted mom, not to mention the rumbling concussion he was still nursing and which had to be pounding like a band inside his skull.

I waved at Roman,

"See you later big guy."

He snorted in amusement but then followed me along, rubbing a sweaty towel over his face as he blew a breath out and taking long gulps from a bottle of water which totally put my hot chocolate to shame.

"Nah, think I'm gonna call it quits for now."

"Pussy," Dean bellowed out loudly across the room, making the few other patrons on the treadmills look up in both surprise and raw censure as well, but which my fiancé was either straight up unaware of or else chose to ignore.

Probably the second one I felt.

Roman chuckled but then hit the elevator button and I skittered in beside him as the metal gates banged shut and plunged us into a comfortable silence that I suddenly realized had another upshot. Ever since Dean had murmured brokenly about his mother and the myriad fears he'd had about her, I had been trying to wrap my head around her character and what I was potentially about to let myself in for. It was my best friend Kelly who had suggested asking Roman, since she figured that he likely had the best impartial insight and so since then I had been waiting until the two of us were together which had actually turned out to be surprisingly hard.

I sucked a long breath in,

"Have you ever met Dean's mother?"

He blinked a little but to his absolute credit otherwise showed no outward signs of alarm, even though I could tell he was thinking about his answer, likely knowing that other questions would follow on from my first.

"Couple of times now."

"What do you make of her?"

"Is there a reason you're asking?"

"Dean kinda thinks I should meet her that's all."

I winced a very mildly as I put the words out there, in case he thought it was a horrible idea or in case or he said something that made me more fearful, but instead his big broad face lit up and he positively beamed across the distance towards me looking as pleased as proverbial punch,

"Damn baby girl, I never thought I'd see it."

"What?"

"Uce finally manning up and taking a girl home, his ass was always adamant about that never happening, but then you showed up and clawed your way into his heart. I'm happy for him, I'm happy for both of you."

He put out an arm and then offered up a sideways hug, which I honestly had very little choice but to fold into and then giggle at happily as he briefly squeezed me tight. Roman hugs were pretty much always perfect because the guy was so freaking big and so therefore a quick cuddle from him felt like being wrapped up in an extra thick comfort blanket that could block out the sun. Not that his being loveable had answered my first question and so once he had freed me from the warmth of the tight embracing I found my feet and tried again,

"So what is she like?"

"She's messed up a little."

"She is messed up or she has messed up?"

Because there was totally a distinction between those two sentences and as the elevator shuddered to halt Roman paused briefly like he was giving it real thought.

"Both as far as I can figure out mostly, I think you know already she wasn't the best mom, I mean uce practically raised himself for the most part but I think she tried in her own kinda way. Problem is she hit the booze pretty hard back then and hasn't been able to give it up since. Think there were some shitty boyfriend types along the way too who made things a lot more difficult for our boy."

I bit my lip,

"I hate that he went through that."

"You and me both baby girl, you and me both."

In front of us the big steel barriers slid open and we stepped out back onto badly patterned weave, that I had learned the hard way was a staple of hotel hallways and was presumably because shapes nicely camouflaged the stains. For the most part the places we stayed in were comfortable but not pricey and so therefore was also favored by everyone else, including bachelor parties and twenty first birthday blows outs and so was therefore probably frequently covered in piles of sick.

Ewww.

I honestly wished I hadn't thought about that too hard and so wrinkled my nose and tried to brush the thought off which I managed to do as we turned up the corridor since I still had some things that I needed to ask.

"Um – ,"

"Keep 'em coming baby girl."

I grinned wryly and then rolled my eyes a little,

"Dean was talking about needing to protect me, he said he was scared his mom would try and scare me off him or say something terrible or upset me or worse."

Roman shrugged,

"She kinda says stuff when she's drunk,"

"What sort of stuff?"

I honestly felt like I needed to know because at least maybe then I could mentally prepare myself for the kind of mean path down which she was likely to go and perhaps build myself up some barriers for it or potentially some really kick ass throwaway quips but which probably wouldn't have worked in any real sense since I was patently not a clever comebacks sort of girl.

Roman winked at me,

"You'll be fine, nothing to worry about but you know how moms are letting go of their sons."

"Speaking from experience?"

I grinned at him teasingly and he blew a long breath out and shook his broad head, like he was having a hideous flashback or something but which also made him snort,

"Mine was the worst, so whatever his mom throws at you, I pretty much promise it's gonna be a whole lot better than that."

"What if it's a tire iron though?"

Roman laughed at me,

"Well that's why uce is there to protect you I guess."

He stopped by the door to my room and I hummed at him and then shrugged my shoulders because like usual he was right and so therefore as long as my fiancé was with me and protecting me from the barbs then I was going to be fine. I mean, in the past eleven months I had been with him, I had been kidnapped twice, held hostage and been molested and that was only a small part of what had flared up and so frankly my being terrified of his mother was one of the more ridiculous things I had dreamed up and even if she was a drunken nightmare who hated me –

Um.

Nope, I still had no clue how to cope with that.

Inserting the key card into the mechanism I threw the big man a cheery little wink and then furnished it further with the best smile in my retinue to show that I appreciated both his total honesty and his love.

"Thanks big guy, you're right, it will go perfectly."

He nodded back,

"But watch out for that right hook of hers."

"What?"

But by the time I had backtracked out into the hallway with a look of alarm that matched my loud internal ringing bells, he was already too far away to fully hear me and possibly chuckling at what I hoped was his brand of teasing but was by no means completely sure about.

I blew out a groan.

"Damn."

So, Dean's mother sounds lovely huh? Bet we can't wait to meet her. Next chapter, Lauren takes cares of Dean in her own special way...plus there's some Kelly thrown in there too!