Author's Note: I've a few more chapters left in this story...maybe about 5, but we'll see. I now realize that finishing by January 2 is a lofty goal which probably won't happen. Deal with it. Anyway, I'm toynig the idea of Prequel. For some reason lately, I've been thinking about how Dave and Britain got together. In Perfect, it started with them already together for few years. I think I mentioned how they met, but it only like a sentence or two. I think I want to do a whole story about it. I'm working on 3 other stories right now, so I don't see that happening for right away, but who knows. Creativity comes in spurts and if that's where the bug's taking me, I might just do it.

Happy New Year!

Family Matters

Britain knocked softly on the door and peeked her head inside. She smiled to herself when she saw him on the bed asleep. He must've been dreaming about something good, because he held the faintest trace of a smirk on his lips. As she walked closer to the bed, she laughed at his big feet sticking up over the covers, covered in black dress socks. His graying brown hair was a little disheveled, but he was still clean shaven and the proud angular cut of his jaw was evident as he rolled his head over to the other side.

She didn't say anything or try to wake him; instead she crawled on the bed and laid her head on his chest. It was almost like he knew she was there because instinctively his arm came around her shoulder and held her close.

He turned his head only to see a curtain of black waves and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "Was ist lose, liebchen?" 'What's the matter, sweetheart?' Johan could always tell when something was wrong with his baby girl.

"Nicht, Vati. Ich vermisse dich gerade." 'Nothing Daddy. I just miss you.' She snuggled her head on her father's chest and wrapped her arm around his thin body.

Johan laughed. "You never could lie."

Britain looked at Johan and smiled. "I lied all the time when I was little; you always believed me."

He shook his head. Oh, if only she understood. "I knew every lie, but that face…" He held her chin in hands. "I could not be mad at that little face."

Britain returned her head to his chest and sighed. "Dave cheated, Vati. He slept with another woman. I don't know what to do."

Johan closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. His heart broke for his daughter, but he would not interfere. When he gave her away at her wedding that was the day that he vowed Dave would the man to take care of her. Though he would always be her father, he was no longer the most important man in her life. "Do you love him?"

"With all my heart."

"Do you want to stay married?"

"He broke his vows." Marriage wasn't supposed to be like this. She had always dreamed of having this fairytale marriage, filled with love and romance, babies and laughter. Never once did she think that her husband would have an affair.

"What about your vows?" He noticed how she looked at him. "David was wrong, no? But, you made vows too. You promised to love him in good and bad times, until you die. You have not died yet, no?" He offered a smile and flicked her nose.

One thing Britain always loved about her father was his optimism. He was the most laid back easy going person, she had ever met. He was definitely not the typical German. "How do you forgive, Vati? I don't know how to forgive."

It was true and he knew it. "As perfect as you are to me, you never were good at that. Even as a child, you would never let people forget when they hurt you. You always keep it with you. You can't, liebschen, it will kill you."

She could feel herself starting to cry, but she knew that her father would understand her tears. "I just feel so stupid and hurt. I feel like I did something wrong and that's why he did it. I'm embarrassed, I feel ugly…but you above everything else, I feel…"

"Like it was your fault." He finished her sentence for her. "You feel everything you worked for was in vain. You wonder how you can love someone who did not care how you feel. You wonder how you could have changed to make them happy. You wonder if every time they leave the house, they are not going to see their lover…"

Britain lifted her head and questioned Johan with her eyes. "How do you know that?" They had always been in tuned with each other, but he couldn't possibly understand.

Johan nodded. "I was not always so perfect." He laughed at his own joke. "When you a baby, I was busy to make a good home for my family. I did not listen when you mazer told me she was not happy. I work a lot, so I could give my family everything. Only I did not give your mazer the attention that she needed." It had been so many years since he had thought about that time. He didn't know if he should even be sharing with his daughter, but if would help, she needed to know. "She found other attention."

Britain was shocked. Her mother was a saint. "What did you do?"

"I was heartbroken, but you needed me here, so I forgave her." He would anything for his children, anything at all.

"That's different Vati. Dave and I don't have kids."

"You have three. Those children love you; they need you in their life. The littler ones need you to teach them how to be a good woman." He sat up on the bed and held her hands in his. "You need to ask, what are the good things about your marriage? Ask yourself is it worth being miserable with out him. Once you do that, you talk about where it went wrong and what you both need to do to fix it."

"But how do I let it go?"

"You tell your heart that he made a mistake. You listen to all of your mistakes, and then you know you are not perfect; that is when can forgive. It is not easy, but it is necessary. If you go back still hurting about it, your marriage will fail. But, if you concentrate on how to make it better, it will only get better."

Britain smiled at her father's gentle words. "Du bildest immer mich fühlen besser. Ich liebe dich, Vati." You always make me feel better. I love you, Daddy.

"Ich liebe dich auch, Britannien" I love you too, Britain.

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X was a nervous wreck. Why she had agreed to letting John be there when she broke the news to Ave, was still a mystery. It could have had something to do with the compromising position he had her in when he asked. Namely, her legs pressed up on his shoulders and him staring into her eyes. She would have promised him she'd walk around the moon with no helmet on at that moment. Now it was too late. Ave was on her way over and John was not leaving.

"Ma, you need to calm down. She's a kid, she'll handle it." He sat on the couch watching basketball, as X paced back and forth behind him. "Come here." He reached around the back of the couch and pulled her over it. She landed awkwardly on his lap, but he wrapped his arms around her. "She's gonna love you, she already does. We all know she already loves me, but I mean who can blame her?"

"Shut up." She slapped in the chest and smirked. "What if she cries or thinks that I want to take her away from her grandparents? I don't want her to come with me if she doesn't want to."

"Look, Florida ain't in another country. You travel enough that she'll see them all the time." He looked into her eyes and made a sacrifice. "If she don't wanna come, I'll understand if you don't wanna move in with me."

X was so torn. She loved John; she wanted to be with him. But she had a responsibility in California. Her daughter, her flesh and blood lived there, she couldn't just go to the other side of the country and leave her little girl behind. No matter how distant she was to her, she still lived 5 minutes from her. It was still close enough to check in on her and make sure everything in her life was fine.

John read her expression. "No pressure."

"Thank you." She kissed him and smiled. John Cena wasn't Miklo Velka; he was nothing like Miklo. But she still loved him. It might not have been the same all consuming love that she shared with Miklo, but it was real and it was special in its own right. John could push her buttons and make her laugh all in the same sentence. He could set her body on fire and make her skin crawl just by his tone of voice. Making a life with him was not going to be easy, but it was a chance that she wanted to take. If nothing else, their time together would always be interesting.

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"Ma, can I ask you something?" Britain sat on chair on the patio and watched her mother as she potted plants. "What do you think really happened when I was in the hospital?"

Mia turned around and looked at her daughter. Britain was the spitting image of her. Although Britain had gotten her height, eyes and complexion from her husband, that girl had her looks and her spirit. "I think that you got hurt by an asshole who told you he loved you." She knew what Britain wanted, but she wasn't going to make her relive it.

"I had an abortion and that's what messed me up."

Mia sat down the watering can and slowly peeled off her gloves. "I thought so and I also thought that he beat you into it." She walked over to her eldest child and sat down in front of her. "I know you mija; you wouldn't do that unless you were pushed. Just like I knew that when you could you would tell me."

"Why'd you cheat on Vati?" Britain asked her mother seriously but made sure not to sound like she was accusing her. "I know you love him, you've always loved him. Why'd you do it?"

Mia thought back and honestly couldn't give a reason to justify her actions. "I don't know. I was lonely, I was new mother and I was tired of being in my marriage by myself. I felt like I couldn't talk to him anymore. I didn't set out to cheat on him, I just wanted someone to listen to and understand me. He worked so much we hardly saw him and you were such a handful. When your Vati wasn't around, you cried all the time." She reached over and pushed Britain's hair behind her ear. "It's like I had all these anxieties and all this anger built up inside me and one day I got the chance to let it out. It was the worst mistake I have ever made. I almost lost my family because of it. It wasn't until afterward that I realized how much you and Vati meant to me."

Britain nodded in understanding. "Was it hard to get back what you had?"

"Yeah, it was. But it was worth it. I swear afterward, when we started to try to work it out, our marriage was so much stronger. I have never loved anyone the way I love that lazy man upstairs. He's the other half of mi corazon. He's my life and I almost threw him away for a man that I don't even remember his name."

"Did you ever want to cheat again?"

Mia shook her head admittedly. "Nothing is worth losing my family over. I bet you Dave feels the same way. It's not going to be pretty, but if it's worth saving, save it. I have never seen you happier than you are with him. I know how hard it is for you to trust and I know what kind of punks you've dated before. But honey, he's not them. He didn't mean to hurt you; he didn't go out with the intention of causing you pain. Sometimes shit happens and you don't realize it until it's too late." She needed to make sure that Britain understood what it was like from her perspective. "I'm not saying that what he did wasn't wrong, because it was; it was fucked up. All I'm saying is if you love him, if you really love him, don't let anybody take that love away from you. That punta isn't worth your tears, or your time. He loves you, not her and I know him well enough to know that he won't do something like this again."

Britain hugged her mother and tried to make sense of it all. There was so much she needed to learn about forgiveness, about love, about trust. She knew that Dave wasn't like the others, but he still had the power to hurt her. But then again, wasn't love a gamble? She hurt him by lying to him, when she promised to share her life with him. Love doesn't involve secrets; it doesn't involve protecting your loved one from yourself. She knew what she needed to do, but she didn't know how to do it. She didn't even know if he'd still want her back. He was so angry the last time they spoke. He slammed the door after he yelled at her; he basically told her he was giving up. He hadn't called her once in the two weeks she was at her parent's house. Did he still want to try?

"Brit, Dave's on the phone." Her younger brother, Croix, called from the kitchen. Britain looked over at her mother who raised her brows and smiled. "Told ya." She said before going back to her plants.

Britain swallowed hard and grabbed the phone, but not before punching her punk brother in the arm. "You wait, when I get off this phone, I'm kicking your ass." She laughed and then put the phone to her ear. "Hi." Her voice was full of hope when she spoke to him.

Dave hardly paid attention to that at the time. "Chase had the baby and it's pretty serious. She wants to know if you can come home so you can see her." He tried to choke back his tears as he talked to his estranged wife.

"What! It's too soon." Her brain started to race. She needed a plane ticket; she needed to pack her clothes. "How? When?"

There were so many questions and he didn't have the answers to. His brain still wasn't functioning. "Uh, she was born last night, but there's a lot wrong. Um, she crashed this morning but uh, they brought her back. Chase and Jeff want her to met her family in case…"

"I'm leaving now. I'll be home soon."

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John practically had to sit on his hands in order not to interfere. He watched from one chair as Christina sat Ave down and leaned down to be eyelevel with the young girl. Looking at them together, John was amazed. She may have looked like Miklo, but she acted just like Christina. She had this tough girl image, the same dirty blonde hair, she had big eyes, but they were blue like her father's not brown like her mother's. She licked her lips the same way that X did and she knitted her brows and placed her little hand on her hip when she was serious. John almost laughed out loud. It was like watching Christina at age 12. She was the spitting image of her mother.

"Mija, I need to talk to you woman to woman." X studied her daughter's eyes and swore she could see Miklo's soul in them.

Ave looked at X and then at John. "You're gonna marry him, aren't you?" She turned to John. "I love you John, but I think that being with Tía is for the best. You're too old for me, she'll make ya happy."

The laughter that came from John was uncontrollable. Here this little girl was giving him permission to marry her mother; it wasn't even something he had thought about. "Thanks, but that ain't what she wanted to tell you."

Ave looked back at X confused. "Oh, sorry. But I still think it's a good idea."

X smiled and shook her head. "Ave Maria Velka, what am I going to do with you?" She looked over at John and huffed when he shook his head. She placed her hand on the little girl's leg and summoned up her courage. "Do you know about your Daddy?"

Ave nodded. "I know that he was really cute. Mami has pictures of him at our house. I know he died before I was born; his name was Miklo."

X could feel her tears starting, but she wasn't going to cry…X didn't cry. "What else do you know?"

Ave shrugged, she really wasn't down for all the secrecy; she was a cut to the chase kind of girl. "I know that Mami y Papi are really mi abuelos. But they take care of me, so I call them Mami y Papi."

She knew more than Christina gave her credit for. She had no idea that she knew that Dolores, Miklo's mother, wasn't her biological mother. She didn't know how to tell Ave the rest of the story, but she was going to try. "Mija, I knew your Daddy. I loved him a lot. It broke my heart when he died and I did a lot of things wrong after that." She never lost eye contact because she wanted Ave to understand every word. "The worst thing I did was give you up. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?" Ave raised her brow and studied X's face. "You're my daughter, Ave. Miklo and I are your parents."

X braced herself for a temper tantrum of monumental proportions, but all she got from Ave was a smile. "I know." She said it like it was common knowledge throughout the world.

"What?" X and John both said in unison. All this time this secret had been eating her up and this child knew it all along. What kind of shit was that?

"I've known for a while now…at least since I was like 8." She had a giggle in her voice when she spoke. She reached out and placed her hand on X's shoulder. "You treat me like I'm a little kid or something. It really wasn't that hard."

"How?"

"I see you more than I see Tía Britain or Tío Carly. Not that I mind or anything, but I don't visit them every month or spend holidays with them. Besides, I found the pictures of you and Miklo in your closet. You two looked really cute together. There was this one picture when you were pregnant and he had his hand on your stomach. I never seen you with a baby, so I figured you didn't have one. But when I found that same picture at Mami's house, I figured it out."

"Wow. Do you know how long I wanted to tell you that?" This little girl was truly amazing. She was so smart and reminded X so much of herself that she had to laugh.

"Really? I always thought you didn't want me." She wasn't going to make X suffer over this. She had always gone with the punches, this was no different. "I mean, you didn't want me to live with you or anything." He pleasant disposition never changed throughout this conversation. It almosted seemed like Ave didn't understand why X was upset about it all. She acted like this was something that happened everyday.

X's heart broke. She never wanted Ave to think that she wasn't wanted. "At first it was too hard, because I missed your Daddy too much. But then, I saw how great you were doing with your Mami y Papi and I couldn't take you back. I always wanted you. Don't ever think I didn't want you. I still want you." She saw John walk over to them out of the corner of her eye and watched as he sat on the coffee table in front of Ave. "John and I are going to live together, in Florida and I would really like it if you'd come."

Ave's face lit up. "Really? You like want me to live you? Really? And I'd live with John too? Oh my God, I will be so cool. I'm gonna live in John Cena's house. Do you have a pool?"

John laughed and nodded. "I gotta pool. But you understand that you'd have to leave your grandparents and your friends."

"So. I'll make new friends, and Mami…I mean Abuela will understand." She stood up and hugged X. "I love you, Mami. I always love you."

X couldn't contain herself. She held on that little girl for all she was worth. She had always hoped to hear her daughter call her Mami and mean it. She looked at John with tears in her eyes and a big smile on her face. "I love you too, mija. I love you so much."

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Britain walked into the waiting room of the hospital and looked at everyone sitting there. They all had the same expression on their face. They all looked like their world was coming to an end. Dave saw her and smiled. She didn't even know what to say to him. But when she looked to his left, she noticed Maddy sitting there distraught. Although her first instinct was to go to Dave, she knew that Maddy needed her more. She walked over to her step-daughter and hugged her. "How's it going Madison Avenue?"

"I didn't mean it, Britain. Cami's sick because of me. I didn't mean to push Alli so hard." She had been blaming herself for everything since it happened. "What's wrong with me? Why am I like this?"

Britain grabbed her hand and Alli's as well and took them into the hallway. "Now you two listen to me. What happened was an accident, but that doesn't excuse your behavior. I'm sick of all the fighting. It has to stop, now." She turned to Alli and looked her in the eye. "Maddy's only here for a few more months before she goes away to college. You have got to stop making fun of her. She's made some bad choices with boys, but that does not make her stupid or a slut. It makes her human because she's made mistakes." She looked over at Maddy and gave her the same look. "And you have got to stop teasing your sister about her sexuality. If she happens to like girls, then you respect that. You owe that much. You girls are all each other have, so you better learn to respect each other. I'm not having this conversation with either of you again. You understand?"

Both girls looked at the floor, but Alli looked back up. "I don't like girls." She whispered. She noticed how Britain raised her brow at her and then she lowered her eyes that filled with tears. "I'm sorry. Don't tell Dad."

Britain hugged the youngest Batista. "It's who you are, sweetheart. Don't you ever be ashamed of who you are. You're still young, you're just learning about yourself. If you don't accept who you are, no one will."

Dave watched silently as Britain did what she did best. She got people to listen. He didn't even ask about Alli, Lord knows he couldn't deal with that now. He still hadn't really dealt with the Maddy thing. Maybe if he had sons things would be different, but somehow he doubted it.

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Chase sat up on her bed and smiled when Britain came in the room. After much protest, she sent Jeff to her mother's house for some much needed rest and truth be told, she was lonely in that room all alone.

Britain walked in the room with a huge smile and engulfed Chase in a warm hug. "Congratulations. I hear she's beautiful."

Chase nodded in agreement. "Jeff keeps saying how much she looks like me. She's so little, I'm afraid to touch her. But even with all that stuff hooked up to her, I think she's perfect."

And she should; all babies, no matter what, are perfect. "She is honey. She's gonna be so spoiled; just you wait. You think your dad's overprotective? I got the feeling that you ain't seen nothing yet. Jeff's gonna walk around town with a shotgun to keep the boys away."

The first real smile since all of this started danced on Chase's face. "We're getting married. I don't know when yet, but once everything with Cami's better, we'll work on it."

"That is a beautiful name. She must be something to have such a pretty name." Britain sat down on the bed with Chase and held her hand. "And I bet she'll be beautiful in the wedding."

"Would you like to see her? I mean, she looks really sick, but I want her to meet her family." Chase's voice was small and scared, but she kept a brave face. As the women approached the NICU, Chase turned to Britain. "I hate this place."

Britain grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze. "But they're going to help her get better." She nodded and then walked with Chase into the room. The scene was enough to make her want to cry. The NICU was so quiet, with only the humming of machines and beeps from monitors. It was dark in that room too; accept for the lights over the individual bassinettes. They walked through a row of babies, until they ended in front of big pink sign that said, Daddy's Little Girl. "Jeff was here." Britain said as she smiled. She peeked her head down and smiled at the baby. "Chase, you are so blessed. Don't ever forget that." Her heart broke for Chase and for herself, because she didn't even have a baby that was sick. But she still was overjoyed that there was new addition to their family.

Chase opened the porthole and stuck her hand inside. "Cami, this is your other Grandma, Britain." She whispered to the baby with a gentle voice.

"No Cami…I'm your Abuelita. Grandma is for old people, like your Grandma Emily." She couldn't help but to laugh when Chase punched her in the arm. "You're a special little girl aren't you? What's that?" She leaned her head closer to the basinet. "I know you're gonna be fine. Everyone's all worried for nothing. They're just all being silly aren't they?" She turned to Chase and hugged her. "She told, she's gonna be fine."

Chase nodded and stroked her daughter's hand. "I know she is."