Okay, so, from this chapter one we get a taste of where we're going. Hope you like it.

xXBalorBabeXx, I know, Dean just wants to have a nice time with his dad and his brother. But there's a horrible writer in the way throwing obstacles in their path (and one more in this chapter too, quite a big one!) I regret nothing though!

Wolfgirl2013, Thank you so much and glad you're still with me. The story is going to take a bit of a turn now, so I hope you're still on board by the end!

Skovko, Well, as ever you are right in one way, but it's not that Roman gets sick. Instead I'm throwing another curve ball at them, because...well, because it's me I guess?! I would apologise to them but hey, I'll be honest, it's kind of fun to do this to them! Sorry, not sorry!

Guest, Roman taking care of Dean in any universe or capacity is amazing to write, but I won't lie, I love big Roman and teen Dean maybe most of all. Besides, Dean has to tell his brother everything. I kind of see teen Dean as having word vomit with people he knows and trusts. Lots more protective caring Roman to come, so strap in!

Minnie1015, Yep, some nice Roman and Dean brother time before I go and ruin it all (or make it better, you decide!) But hey, it wouldn't be a Little Brother (or me) story without some real drama or peril, right?!

HannonsPen, Haha, well, I would maybe stow your swimsuit for a little while, because there's a storm brewing in this chapter. Both literally and figuratively *cue evil laughter*...

Mandy, Hey, I was starting to worry about you a little bit there! Glad you're present and correct! Yep, life can suck sometimes and seem so damn difficult, but you never know what is coming around the bend, so even when it sucks, keep on keeping on. With you all the way!

Brace yourselves...


Seven

Dean is fast asleep when Roman wakes the next morning having evidently slept through at the foot of the bed and even though the kid still sounds all kinds of piglet snuffly, the fever has broken so that at least is good.

From outside the sea breeze is blowing in fiercely, to the point that it nearly takes the drapes from the rails and so Roman rolls onto his feet to close the window and then grunts a little at the blanket of grey. Maybe it's best that the teen is sick after all, since no way would they be able to take a boat out in that, without it capsizing or all three of them vomiting and frankly there has already been enough hurl for one weekend.

He tiptoes from the room as far as a man of his bulk is able then showers and pulls some clothes on before heading downstairs, where he finds his father in the kitchen with some cereal because without Mama Reigns there hot food is not a thing.

His father looks up,

"Morning son, have you been in to check on Dean yet?"

"Yeah, little uce is out for the count still, but his fever seems better. Not like the weather huh?"

Rain is hammering the glass and then streaking a blurry trail down the floor to ceiling windows in a brutally cold and fresh-off-the-sea coastal blast. Roman can see the peaks of the ocean breaking and then battering hard on the shore, not to mention the terrace and their own little jetty which is being nearly swamped by furious looking waves.

Papa Reigns grunts,

"Not exactly the grand trip I had in mind for the poor boy."

"He had a nightmare last night," Roman supplies while opening up a fresh packet of cornflakes and lamenting the lack of anything remotely fried, "Must have been brought on by the fever I'm guessing, but it still ended up kind of rattling him."

"Do I want to know the contents?"

Roman winces mildly,

"His no good old man was beating him for getting sick."

"Damn him," Papa Reigns hisses back fiercely, hating the image as much as his son, "Honestly there are times when I wish you'd punched him harder back when we tracked the two of them down all those months ago. Because given the things that he put my poor boy though that monster deserves more than a simple bloodied nose."

Roman sighs,

"He got seven years pop."

Except both of them know it's not nearly enough, because at some point when Dean is in his awkward early twenties and probably trying to forge a grown up life for himself and likely when he has finally gotten over his brutal childhood, the asshole that caused it will be released to show back up.

But Roman will be waiting for him if and when that happens.

His father too it seems.

Buzzing fills the open space and it briefly cuts through the lashing of the rainstorm as the work phone his father carries lights up with a text which the businessman sighs at for a second before relenting and putting his reading specs on.

Roman lets loose a grin.

It has been a rough couple of months for his father between his old man eyesight and the strictly enforced diet. Both of which will hopefully make him live longer, not to mention more healthily but have not improved his mood. Roman assumes it's then the reason for the grumble, right up until the moment it turns into a curse.

"Damn."

Roman frowns,

"Hey, is everything okay pop?"

His father waves a large and frustrated looking hand,

"Nearly a month back I had to fire an employee and suffice to say the news wasn't taken well. I mean the man has tried everything from pleading to blackmail and last week he even sent a letter to the house, like the damn fool honestly thought he could scare me," Papa Reigns bitterly harrumphs at the thought like the mere notion offends him, "He was supposed to stay in town so the damn police could talk to him but according to Titus the coward has fled."

Roman watches his father shovel in cereal,

"So he had to be fired?"

His father nods,

"No other choice, I mean those things we found on his computer were wicked."

But what those things were precisely he chooses not to reveal since instead he merely goes back to his breakfast as he hoovers up cornflakes with big heated chomps and then grumbles under his breath to himself on occasion as the fury sits with him.

Roman switches things up,

"Dean needs to buy a souvenir to take back with him."

"For your mother?"

"For Renee," Roman waggles his brows and in response his father throws his head back and laughs broadly before slapping the table with the palm of his hand and both of which fortunately push back the anger that had captured his face entirely only moments before. Because if there is one thing he knows will make his old man happy then it will be their kooky teen every single time.

Papa Reigns winks,

"He takes after his father when it comes to the ladies."

Roman grins at that, because his old man means himself since nobody in their rights mind would see Papa Ambrose as a parent of any kind and besides which Dean really is their legal child now.

Right back at the beginning when Dean had first crept up on them and begun to orbit the safe and comfortable Reigns world, it was the patriarch who been the most reluctant to accept him as more than a charitable but passing concern who they would put on his feet and then wash their hands of.

But that was before the kid had snuck into his heart.

Fully and completely.

Papa Reigns loves him fiercely.

For Dean it had been a slightly longer road there because traditionally father figures had been none too kind on him, but the blossoming of their relationship had been a beautiful thing to witness and maybe one of the best things to come out of all the stress in that they each of them had opened the other one up a little.

Roman rolls his eyes and then snorts fondly,

"Not his older brother?"

"Definitely not."

"Hey watch it old man I'm not so bad with the romance."

"Is that why you won't bring this new girl of yours round? Because your mother is more than a little keen to meet her," Papa Reigns smirks then flaps his broadsheet out, before licking his finger like he plans to turn the pages but while continuing to fix his eldest son a smug faced look.

Roman shrugs casually but maybe too casually,

"I'm taking things slowly."

Really slowly.

But they both know why, because the last time Roman had fallen head over heels with a woman he had then found her tucked up in bed with his best friend, the betrayal of which had broken his heart completely and was the reason that he had come home from college to run the gym. No way therefore is he planning on rushing anything when it comes the woman he has been seeing for three months and besides which the next step is probably a Reigns family meal time, which tends to be too much to handle for normal folk.

Him too sometimes, although Dean handles them well now.

Papa Reigns snorts back then leans over to pat his shoulder because presumably he knows what his son is thinking about and because he also understands the lingering sense of heartache.

"Now now I'm only teasing so you take all the time you like."

"I know thanks pop."

"But you should probably know son that your mother wants more grandchildren."

Roman blows out a wry snort and then tries to bite back the tiny frisson of laughter but which gets stifled anyway by two things happening at once, in the form of the cell phone on the table starting to ring at them and the doorbell in the hallway chiming briskly.

Ding-dong.

Papa Reigns rolls his eyes,

"Probably Margaret from number twenty seven with her usual casserole welcome for us."

Roman grins, because pretty much like clockwork whenever they turn up at the beach house for a spell, the sweet little widower from three houses over always seems to know and shows up with home baked goods that she hands to his father while flirting like crazy and batting false lashes smeared with wobbly black ink and bright purple eyeshadow that went out of style in the seventies.

"I'm guessing you want me to handle her then pop?"

His father waves the cell phone,

"I mean, if you would son."

Coward.

Easing himself on weary limbs from the bar stool Roman plods back through into the open entrance hall, where the heavy coastal rain is battering hard at the skylight and where a probably wet figure is stood beyond the frosted glass. Behind him in the background he can hear his father talking and knows instantly it's a business call based on his tones, but paints he on a smile and opens the door regardless expecting stroganoff or lasagne or maybe even beef bourguignon.

Instead he finds a man.

Foodless.

"Uh hey brother can I help you?"

In response the newcomer blows out a snort which is so far from being a kind sounding sort of comeback that the gym owner feels his brows knit with mistrust. In terms of his look the man is probably in his forties but has the hair of a teenager since it's scruffy and too long and looks bizarre over the weather beaten features beneath it which include two unblinking eyes set far too far apart.

He is stubbly too but not like he intends to be, since instead it looks like he's forgotten how to shave and the problem with which is that it highlights his tight lip line, which is colorless and pursed and not to mention weirdly thin.

He coughs,

"I'm — I'm here to see your father."

"Is he expecting you man? Because right now he's on a call."

Roman is countered by a harsh sounding chuckle which kind of super weirdly slithers in over his skin and sets the hackles on the back of his neck crazy because something about the guy is all wrong. Not that the rain trickling over his face helps things, unless he wants to look murderous that is.

"Oh he'll want to see me."

Reaching a hand into his water raincoat the newcomer pulls out something metallic and hard, which turns the stomach of the man stood before him and changes everything at once.

He pulls out a gun.


Told you we would start to get to the crazy! Next chapter, we meet our gunman and Papa Reigns and Roman try to keep Dean safe.