Chapter 7 - We Were Innocent

Ayana was laying in bed. It had been a couple of months since Roman had won the title at WrestleMania. It was Friday morning and Roman had already been up and gone on the next plane out to start his weekend house shows. She felt him lean over her and kiss her temple once.

Of course again all she could think was 'It was almost a real kiss.'

The kids were out of school for the day and the following day was Odyn's peewee football game. She couldn't wait to sit in the stands and cheer on one of her baby boys. They might not have been babies anymore but they were HER babies! She and Roman supported anything they wanted to do.

Ayana pulled herself from bed and padded to the bathroom before getting in the shower to wake herself up. Once she finished showering from head to toe she got herself dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. She was combing the snarls and knots out of her long hair as she walked down stairs and fired up her laptop. She smiled as she looked over and watched as Braden was making pop tarts for his brothers and sister.

"Okay Miss Samaria come check out your grades please." Ayana stated before she watched as her youngest came bouncing into the living room and onto the couch next to her. "Morning baby." Ayana greeted her youngest with a kiss to the forehead as Samaria got comfortable next to her.

"How did I do momma?" Samaria asked in a chipper tone.

Ayana gasped out dramatically. "Oooooo, look at that you got gold stars all the way across with smiley faces. You are doing perfect pumpkin."

"Do you think daddy will be proud of me?" Samaria's soft voice asked.

"I think daddy will be very proud of you. When he comes home on Wednesday we can show him." Ayana promised. "Go in the den and Braden will turn on some cartoons for you."

"Yes momma." Samaria agreed before she bounced off the couch and skipped out of the room.

Ayana smiled. "Next on the list is my little prince Maximos." Ayana sighed heavily it was going to be a long day. Once she finished up with the going over the kids grades with them she had payroll to do for 4 companies which would occupy the rest of her day. Then they were going to order pizza and watch a movie for the night.

Everyone would be in bed by 9 for Odyn's peewee football game the next day.


Saturday found Nala, Ayana, Braden, Max and Samaria dressed in black and red sitting in the small football stadium cheering and yelling on Odyn and his peewee football team.

Deep blue eyes gleamed as she watched her 9 year old scamper down the field. He had some speed on him. She could definitely say that. He often gave his older brother Braden a run for his money - his father too. Family picnics are spent laughing at how fast Odyn was while running from the older guys in the family. No wonder his peewee league loved having him on the family.

Ayana's thousand watt smile practically lit up the entire field as she watched him catch a PERFECT spiral and tear off down the field; the field goal in his sights. His body was the metal and the goal posts were the magnets sucking him in.

"Look at little man go!" Nala exclaimed. All she had to do was look at Ayana and could tell by the smile on her face how proud she was of her son.

"I love the fact that he can out run his daddy. Roman used to be hell on the field and apparently he passed his football gene down to Odyn." Ayana chuckled.

Her eyes were still on Odyn and when he was 10 yards from the goal line he was taken down by five guys from the opposing team. "Jesus those guys look gigantic compared to Odyn. HEY REF GET THEM OFF MY SON ALREADY!" Ayana ended up shouting.

Nala giggled. "Calm down mama bear. Odyn has taken on half the big guys in your family including Roman, Dean and the twins and still came out on the other side unscathed."

Ayana shook her head as she noticed it was taking too long to get the bigger guys off. Once they did; she watched as the referee turned Odyn over and then waved over the coach and am EMT that was sitting in an ambulance at the end of the field. The EMT's were always there just as a precautionary.

"Something's wrong..." Braden whispered towards his mother.

"Momma why isn't Odyn getting up?" Samaria asked in a quiet voice.

Ayana's hand went to the back of Samaria's head. "I don't know baby." Her eyes finally left the field as she looked at Braden, Max and Samaria. "You guys stay here with your Aunt Nala. I'm going to go check on Odyn." She watched as her remaining children nodded in understanding as she carefully moved around the stands and jogged down the steps and out onto the field.

Ayana got to the group of men kneeing around her son. Her eyes landed on Odyn's coach. "Ray - Ray what is going on?" She asked, trying to keep her panic down to a minimum, until she actually had a legitimate reason to panic.

Ray stood up and backed away so the EMT's could figure out what was going on with him. "I'm not sure; according to the EMT's his breathing is really shallow and his lips are turning blue."

A guy in an EMT uniform walked over. "Are you the boy's mother?" He asked.

Ayana nodded. "Yes, can you tell me what's going on with my son?" Her panic was starting to go a little deeper.

"Not yet ma'am, is he allergic to anything you know of?" He asked.

Ayana shook her head negatively. "No..." Her heart was beating a tattoo on the inside of her chest cavity. She watched as they brought in a yellow back body and scooted him onto it and strapped him down.

The EMT came back over. "Ma'am we're going to go ahead and take him to the Emergency Room, would you like to ride with us?" The man watched as she nodded. "Okay we'll meet you in the parking lot and you can ride up front."

Ayana nodded once more before she turned and jogged across the field back to the stands. Nala and the kids met her at the bottom of the stairs as she pulled her Tahoe keys out and tossed them to Nala. "Their taking him to the ER; meet us there. You guys behave for Aunt Nala." Ayana pointed at her kids and watched as they all nodded before she turned and jogged towards the parking lot and hopped in the front seat of the ambulance.

The lights started rotating as the siren began to blast. Her heart was still pounding and she couldn't stop from ringing her hands in her lap.

She could only hope Odyn was going to be okay.


So many things were going through her head.

She signed all the consent forms to allow the doctors and nurses to run every test they needed to find out what was going on with her son. She walked out of the empty ER triage room after she watched a medical team roll Odyn down to the various rooms he would need for every test. She'd asked him repeatedly if he wanted her to go with him and he shook his head and said. "No momma I'm a big boy. I can go all by myself." When he was younger he used to say the same thing to her all the time and even now he was nine going on twenty-nine.

Ayana walked down to the ER waiting room where she saw Nala sitting with Braden, Max and Samaria. She looked down at her cell as she swiped her finger across the screen to unlock it as she pulled up her contact list. She could already feel the tears pricking her eyes as she hit the send button to call Roman.

"Hey babygirl what's up?" Roman answered his phone.

It felt like forever since he'd called her that. "Roman...I need you. You need to come home."

Roman could hear the crack in his wife's voice and his heart dropped into his stomach. Something was clearly wrong. "Ayana what is it?"

"O-O-Odyn...He was running down the field for a touchdown and got tackled by 5 really big guys from the other team and there's no way they are in the same weight class and his breathing was labored and his lips were turning blue and they brought him to the hospital and I just signed a mountain of consent forms for tests and I'm going to question the peewee league about those five players they were like peewee versions of the incredible hulk and they definitely broke something inside our son and Roman I'm really scared right now."

Roman knew it was no time to chuckle at his wife who just broke down the day's events in one sentence without taking a breath, but he stifled the chuckle he could tell she was scared to death right now. Odyn had been their scary surprise when he was born 10 weeks premature. He was smaller than most 9 year olds, but he was definitely tougher and faster than most his age.

"What are the doctor's saying?" Roman asked once he could tell Ayana was breathing normally again.

"They think it's ventricles going in and out of his heart are not functioning properly. Roman he looks so tiny in that big bed. He didn't even want me to go with him to get the testing done." Ayana stated as the silent tears slipped down her cheeks. Roman had always been her wall when one of the kids was sick or needed their shots.

This was not going to be easy; not by a long shot.

"Just calm down babygirl. I'll talk to Hunter and I'll be home as soon as I can. I'll call you back when I have flight information." Roman stated softly. He knew his tenor voice was soothing for her, before he hung up and called Hunter immediately.


Ayana was still ringing her hands as she waited and paced the ER waiting room. Roman had sent her a quick text letting her know he'd caught a flight and would take a taxi from the airport to the hospital.

"Hey why don't I take the kids back to my place for the night; then you can stay with Odyn and not have to worry about feeding three other mouths plus they can sleep in comfortable places." Nala pointed out as the three kids were spread out on the couches and chairs snoozing. Nala had taken a taxi to her place and grabbed her car and brought it back just for this reason alone. She knew Ayana wasn't going to leave Odyn's side for the night, but at the same time she'd been riding in Ayana's Tahoe and she didn't want to leave her without a vehicle.

Ayana rubbed her forehead as she nodded. "Yea, thanks; you are such a life saver." She stated as they both stood up and hugged tighter than ever before.

Nala smiled softly. "Anytime sweetie. Call me or text me if you need anything. If I don't hear from you by morning I'll give you a call."

They walked around and gently woke Braden, Max and Samaria. Nala lifted Samaria into her arms as the little girl wrapped herself around her aunt's body before burying her face into her aunt's shoulder already sleeping again; even through her mother's kiss. Ayana kissed and hugged Braden and Max both. "You guys be good for Aunt Nala and help with Samaria when you can. I love you both and I'll see you tomorrow some time."

Braden and Max both nodded in understanding as they followed their Aunt Nala out of the building. She heard the double doors behind her swoosh open; she turned and watched as Odyn's doctor walked over to her. "Dr. Bloodworth, how's Odyn?"

Dr. Bloodworth offered her to sit down as he joined her. "Mrs. Reigns, I looked over the test results and I really don't want to give any kind of false hope for tonight. I'm going to show the results to one of my colleagues; he is a Pediatric Heart Specialist, if you don't mind waiting until tomorrow morning some time. He'll be coming in after 10 AM tomorrow. Odyn is actually sleeping right now, but the nurses put a cot in the room if you want to stay with him."

Ayana nodded. "Just let the nurses know not to be scared when a very large Samoan man comes in asking for me or Odyn. My husband works out of town and he's supposed to be on his way and should be here at any time."

They parted ways as Ayana made her way to Odyn's room. They were keeping him in the ER for the night until they could decide what kind of treatment they were going with. As soon as she walked in she couldn't help but still notice how awfully small he looked in that big hospital bed. She stood next to his bed as she gentle pushed his shaggy raven hair out of his face. He was still wearing the oxygen tube under his nose and she could still see a tint of light blue around his lips.

Ayana watched as his grey-blue eyes fluttered open. "Hi baby, how are you feeling?"

Odyn nodded. "I can breathe better and my chest doesn't feel funny anymore."

"Well that's good. I'm glad they are taking care of you or I would have to sick daddy on them when he gets here." Ayana teased as she winked at him.

"Daddy's coming?" Odyn asked softly.

Ayana nodded. "Yea he's pretty worried about you. Can I get you anything sweetie?" She asked. She'd go all over hell's half acre to get him whatever she wanted.

Odyn shook his head negatively. "Can you lay with me momma?"

Finally! Ayana's mind screamed. She knew he loved to protest about being a big boy and hated it when she called him baby; she figured most days when she called him that he was only humoring her. "I think I can do that; scootch over give me some room little man." She watched as he slowly moved over and she kicked off her sneakers before she climbed up onto the hospital bed with him; stretching her right arm above Odyn's head, but having her bicep under her head as a make shift pillow and wrapping her left arm protectively around her son as always.

Ayana couldn't help but think this was her and Roman's punishment for letting their marriage fall apart and for cheating on each other. She knew she started cheating first, but honestly she'd tried everything in her might to get Roman interested in her again. It had almost been two years since Roman had physically touched her. Maybe having four kids had wrecked her body so badly that he wasn't attracted to her anymore.

Maybe it was time to either cut ties with AJ. He made her feel loved and wanted and beautiful. He made her FEEL something again. But she loved Roman so much and lately even sitting in the same room she ached; her body for him to touch her or kiss her.

They would be sitting in the same room and they were 10,000 miles apart and she missed him like he was still on the road.

Something needed to change...and soon.

She watched as her son slowly drifted off to sleep once more.

He was so innocent in all of this.

As she let sleep take over her body; she could only hope Roman made it home soon and that the doctor would have good news in the morning.