Sevina had never heard her father apologise, not really and it was a strange, almost surreal experience to have him put his arms around her and apologise over and over. He had insisted on driving her to the hospital, though she'd fought him hard on it. He had refused to take 'no' for an answer. She had sat dutifully, curling her hands into fists as the doctor prodded at her head. She was so tempted to punch him, just to see how he liked it, but she restrained herself. She didn't want to piss her dad off again. She ended up with two small stitches and a big, beige bandaid. She was not happy about either, but she held her tongue.

Victor continued to apologise to her, buying her dinner and letting her watch WWF on the t.v, despite the fact that it wrestling that had caused all the problems to begin with. Sevina had noticed that one of her siblings had cleared the mess in her room. It looked bare without all the posters, but there was no sign of the traumatic scene that had taken place in there. She didn't mention it, but quietly resolved to find out who it had been and thank them. For now though, she just let her father make himself feel better. She was pretty sure that there was nothing he wouldn't do to make it up to her right now and that got her thinking.

Okay, so it wasn't cool to use this situation for personal gain and she had no intention of bringing the subject up, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad to store it up as a kind of 'get out of jail free card' for future reference. Her mind kept going back to being in the ring at Omega and how good it had felt, how free and natural. She'd been like a recovering addict the last few weeks, desperately trying not to fall back into her habits, but she was headed for a relapse, in a really big way. She knew she wouldn't be able to stay away now. The fever had her, the desire. She knew she was going to go back, she just had to find a way to keep it secret, or at least, secret enough that she wasn't shoving it in her dad's face.

She suspected that he knew now, that he was beginning to understand that his reaction was out of proportion. It shouldn't matter what she did in her spare time, as long as her extra curricular activities didn't effect her school work. Sevina fully intended to make this work, one way or the other. The shaky truce with her dad would be tested, she was sure of it, but some instinct told her that she needed to do this and she needed to do it now, before the anger and the despair inside of her completely overwhelmed her. The only thing that made her feel better was wrestling. She needed it to get all the crap, all the demons out of her. She needed to fly, otherwise she was going to fall.

She ignored the curious looks from her classmates in school, all wondering what had happened to her head, but none of them brave enough to approach her and ask. She wouldn't tell them anyway. None of them had bothered with her since she'd started, so she wasn't about to take kindly to them inviting themselves into her life when something unusual happened. She focused on her work as if trying to absorb the information straight out of the books.

She walked around in a kind of daze, just hanging on. It was only a week until she could talk to Matt about her idea, but it felt like it would last forever. A couple of times she considered calling him, but she knew that he would just worry if she did, so she held off. She could wait. She would wait. Her family knew something was up with her, but given the size and implications of her argument with Victor, they just assumed she was still reeling from it. She was behaving, she wasn't getting into any more trouble and that was all that mattered right now. If she could just keep her head down and not draw attention to herself, then everything would be alright.

Matt pulled up to the house, shutting off the engine. He'd dropped Jeff off at the gym and was feeling pretty tired. His body had taken one hell of a beating and he felt like he could sleep for a week. Not to mention, the drive back from Raleigh had been hell in itself, with Jeff singing loudly and being his generally hyperactive self, despite them both being thrown around like a pair of rag dolls in the ring. Matt sighed and leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes for a moment.

Sometimes, he wondered if it was worth it, losing match after match, but then he remembered the potential at the end. If they worked hard and earned their stripes, they would get full-time on-air talent contracts and that was the goal. That was the dream. He opened his eyes again and then climbed out of the truck, stretching his aching legs. He pushed through the front door, dropping his suitcase just inside. His eyes fell on the pair of muddy, beaten boots sitting by the door. He knew those boots. He instantly felt anxious. He walked into the family room, to see Sevina curled up on the couch, talking to his dad who was in the armchair and pointing at the t.v, explaining something about what was going on. Matt's eyebrows went up. Well, she didn't look like she was in any trouble. In fact, she looked happier than he'd ever seen her. Her head looked a lot better by now, as well. The bruise had reached that green/yellow stage and the swelling had gone down.

"No, no, no. That just doesn't make sense, girl. Look at it."

"It's not supposed to make sense, Gil. It's a cartoon."

"But he's got really long arms and a really small head." Sevina laughed, then looked up as Matt coughed conspicuously. She grinned at him and sat up a little. "Hi. How was St Louis?"

"Um…good. How have things been here?" He tilted his head in a curious fashion, interested to know, not only what she was doing here now, but how much time she'd been spending here whilst he'd been away. She seemed very comfortable with her surroundings. "Not bad." Matt nodded slowly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "So…um…how come you're here?"

"I was waiting for you to get back, actually. Your dad said I could wait here." Matt's eyes went to his father, Gilbert was smiling and he shrugged. It was very plain that he liked Sevina. She was spirited and ballsy. She was a fighter, she just needed a little guidance from time to time. "How are things at home?" Sevina shrugged, her fingers unconsciously tracing the healing cut on her forehead. "Better. Dad's kind of giving me a wide berth right now. Which is kind of what I wanted to talk to you about." She sat up straight and Matt frowned a little. He didn't know what was coming, but he was sure it was going to put him in a tough situation. "I wanna train at Omega."

"And your dad's gonna let you do that?" He instantly knew that this was the part that was going to be difficult, as she chewed her lip and avoided his eyes. "No, but…if I'm not in matches, surely it wont matter."

"Sevina, you can't train without parental permission. You're still a minor."

"Come on, Matt. Please? I promise, I wont be any trouble and my dad wont sue or anything."

"You've talked to him about this?"

"Not directly, but I know he wont make trouble. Please?" Her face was pleading and Matt hated not being able to give her what she wanted. He sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Kid. I can't." Sevina frowned and stood up, walking over to him. Her face was set and determined, Matt saw the flash of stubbornness in her eyes and it reminded him strongly of his brother. "You know I'm good. You know that I can do this."

"That's got nothing to do with it, Vina. You're too young."

"Bullshit."

"Watch your mouth."

"Matt, come on!"

"No. I'm not gonna get you into more trouble, or myself."

"My dad said that I can do what I like outside school, as long as I keep my grades up. Can't we construe that as permission?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"I wont give up."

"Sevina, I said no."

"I'm not taking that as an answer."

"Well it's the only one you're going to get."

"Damnit, Matt! Let me train."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Children! That's quite enough for tonight. Sevina, you better go home before your dad starts wondering where you are." Gilbert was doing a very bad job of hiding his grin as he stood up. Sevina looked at him and smiled, then nodded. "Alright." Matt was surprised. He hadn't expected her to give up so easily, but then he caught the flash of mischief in her eyes and knew he hadn't heard the last of this. Sevina waved cheerfully as she left and then Matt turned his eyes on Gilbert. "You had something to do with this, didn't you?" Gilbert grinned at his oldest son and shrugged. "I plead the fifth."

"Dad!"

"Please, please, please, please, please, please, please!"

"No!" Matt turned sharply to look at Sevina. She'd been following him around the gym for an hour now and it was impossible to get any work done. She looked at him innocently and went silent. He sighed with relief and turned away from her again. "Please, please, please, please, please, please, please!" He growled and closed his eyes, praying for patience. God, this kid was relentless! He walked away form her, but she followed. "Please, Matt! Pleeeeeeeeease! You'll barely know that I'm here!"

"That would make a pleasant change. Go away."

"Okay." Without another word, she disappeared, leaving Matt feeling as if he'd just been had.

"Fucking Christ! Sevina!" Matt had opened it locker and it was like opening a can of worms, a load of multi-coloured foam snakes burst out at him, each with the word 'Please' written on them in black marker. He growled and slammed the locker shut again. He had to admire her determination, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"Hi!"

"Shit! Where the hell did you come from?!" Matt nearly jumped out of his skin when Sevina appeared, seemingly from nowhere, in the passenger side of his truck. She looked at him innocently and pointed to the truck bed. "Over there somewhere."

"Are you stalking me or what?"

"Only slightly."

"Sevina…" Matt rubbed his temples. "You are acting insane."

"Let me train and I'll go away."

"No. Not happening."

"Okay." She had then hopped out of the truck and run off.

It had been two months and Matt hadn't seen Sevina. He felt kind of bad, but assumed she had given up. He should have known better. He walked into Omega, shifting his bag in his hand, then promptly dropped the bag and let out a bellow of surprise when he tripped a switch, which set off a load of strobe spot lights, which finally settled on the ring. Inside of it was a cardboard cut-out of a WWF diva, with a photo of Sevina's face pasted to it. The cut out was holding a big banner with the word 'please' written on it. It was at this point Matt noticed that the ring was draped with paper streamers, with the word 'please' over and over. He stared at it. Wow. She was something else. He looked at the effort she had gone to and finally felt something in his resolve give way. "Alright! Fine! You can train!" A high pitched squeal met his ears and Sevina ran at him from the distant corner of the gym and threw her arms around him. He couldn't help but laugh as she hugged him. Crazy kid.