*Thank-you for the reviews on the last chapter. They were greatly appreciated. Thank-you all so much.
Tayla and the girls walked into the doors of the performance center the following Monday while Roman was away at RAW. She walked into the ring area while pushing the girls in their stroller. She was greeted by some of her friends. "Tayla, how are you?" asked Lana as she gave her a hug.
"Good," said Tayla with a smile. Lana was the only female that she actually talked to in NXT and became friends with. "How are you?"
"Good," she said, "How are you doing after everything that happened last week? That has to be really hard to get over."
"It is but I'm surviving," she said, "I'm tired of reporters bugging me though. All they do is ask me questions and take pictures. I hate it."
"I'm sure," she said, "so when are you coming back?"
"I am not sure," she said, "I probably won't be wrestling until May."
"May?" asked Lana, "you're out that long for broken ribs?"
"No," said Tayla with a smile, "I'm pregnant."
"Oh wow," she said as she looked at the girls, "your kids are going to be really close in age."
"I know," she said, "believe me Roman and I did not plan this. It just happened."
"How does he feel about it?"
"He's happy about it. I wasn't thrilled with the idea but it's good now. I mean we did try for years before we finally got the girls and now this baby so I won't be back till May. I'm really going to miss training but it is what it is."
"I hear you. I got my call," said Lana.
"Your call?"
"Yes," she said with a smile. "I'm going to WWE."
"That's awesome," said Tayla feeling a little jealous. She wished she would get her call to go up to the WWE but she knew it would be a while before she got to that point. "Congratulations."
"Thank-you," said Lana with a smile.
"So are you wrestling or what are they having you do?"
"I'm going to be Rusev's manager," she said, "The Bolgarian Brute," she said.
"He is a brute," said Tayla, "At least you two are going to get to travel together so that won't be too much of a strain on your relationship."
"I know," she said, "I'm really excited and so is Alex."
"I would be too," she said sadly. "I can't wait till I can go be with Roman. This kind of sucks."
"I'm sorry," she said as she gave Tayla a hug. "Your time will come. I know you're going to get there. You're awesome. It will happen."
"I hope so," she said, "so when are you two going?"
"After Summerslam so in a couple weeks," she said.
"Awesome," said Tayla as Bill walked over to them.
"Wow, Tayla, we just can't keep you away," he said with a smile. "How are you doing?"
"Okay," she said as she nodded her head. "I'm okay."
"That sounded promising," said Bill. "Do you need to go work out again?"
"No," she said, "I actually came to talk to you but Lana was just telling me the good news about her and Alex going to WWE. I am so happy for them."
"Me too," said Bill, "and one day you're going to be there too. Probably sooner than you think."
"I don't know," said Tayla.
"Yeah as soon as your ribs heal up you can get back in the ring and do your thing. Hunter was just asking about you last week to see how soon you could be able to come to the company. I told him you were out of action because of your ribs but as soon as you're healed up I would work with you and get you into the company. I say it should take at least a month to get you WWE ready or a month and a half."
"That's great," she said sadly. All this WWE talk was depressing her and knowing that she was so close to making it to the WWE but couldn't do it was making her even sadder. "That's really great."
"What's the matter? You sound defeated," he said, "don't be sad you're going to get there."
"I know but right now I can't even train for a while or work for a while."
"I know till your ribs heal up," said Bill.
"No," said Tayla, "not until 6-8 weeks after I have my baby," she said.
"Shit, you're pregnant?"
"Yes," she said, "I'm pregnant. I'm not due until April so that puts me out of action till May or June. So anything WWE wise and NXT wise won't happen till after then."
"Talk about surprises," he said.
"You're telling me. I don't think anyone was more surprised than me."
"I bet but don't worry, Tay, you take the time that you need and you come back even stronger and you'll get back in the ring do your wrestling thing and then hopefully your WWE contract will come."
"I hope," she said. "I do want to still do weights and work out during my pregnancy. I don't want to be out of shape when I come back."
"Well, you're still under contract here so any time you want to come use the gym you're more than welcome to use it. I can find you a job to do while you're pregnant if that helps you."
"A job?" she asked.
"Yeah how do you feel about ring announcing? Would you be in to that? Or no?"
"I would love that," she said as a smile grew on her face. She wasn't entirely out of the game she couldn't wrestle but she wasn't completely off the show she could still get herself seen and get the fans to know her. "I would love to be a ring announcer."
"Great," said Bill, "we gotta keep you busy because I know you're going to go crazy while being out of the ring."
"Yeah I know," she said, "thank-you."
"No problem," he said. "But there is a rule."
"What?"
"You have to take care of yourself and if something isn't feeling right then you don't work out or ring announce. Take the time off if you need it. Don't push yourself too hard okay?"
"Okay," she said.
"Tayla, we all know you and we know how you push yourself just take it easy all right?"
"I will," she said with a smile. Roman was right she wasn't going to lose her job or have to give up on NXT she was still part of the show even if it wasn't in the way she wanted to be but she was still under contract and still on the show. She also had a lot to look forward to for when she came back from after having the baby. She was very happy with the way things were going to go for her.
Roman was sitting in catering by himself eating his dinner when Hunter walked into the room. He took a seat next to him. "Hey, Roman."
"Hey," said Roman.
"How are you holding up?"
"I'm all right," he said.
"You know you could have taken a few more days off to be home with Tayla? You didn't have to rush back to work. I would have understood."
"No it's all right. Tayla wanted me to go," said Roman. "She is all right. Dean is on life support and Bray is dead. There is no one else out there that wants to harm her besides she's staying with her parents till they are done looking at our home as a crime scene and we get new furniture and a new carpet and paint the place we'll be back home."
"How is Tayla doing? I heard she has broken ribs."
"She's doing okay," said Roman, "I don't think she feels free from it all until Dean is dead but she's okay. And yes she does have broken ribs a couple of them. He busted her up pretty bad."
"And obviously she busted him up pretty bad," he said. "So I talked to Steph and the creative team about the tag team idea."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah they love it. They want to make you two an inter-gender tag team. I talked to Bill DeMott about Tayla's progress and he said it should only take her a month to be WWE ready," he said, "so that's when we'll do the tag team thing as well as a single push for both of you. We want you two to be dominant in the WWE. You as the tag team champions and both of you holding a title; you the heavyweight championship and her the divas championship. You think Tayla will be happy?"
"I think she'll be happy in about 9 months from now," said Roman.
"What? What do you mean 9 months?" asked Hunter in a panic because creative had already begun writing their storyline for the coming month.
"Tay is pregnant," said Roman, "we just found out. She's not doing any wrestling for at least 9 months."
"Well, that screws things up," said Hunter, "she's really pregnant?"
"Yeah," said Roman, "and she wasn't happy about it because she thought that being pregnant would ruin her chances of getting to WWE and that you would release her from her developmental contract."
"Well, we aren't allowed to do that legally," said Hunter, "but this does put us 9 months behind on what we want to do. This really throws a wrench in our plans. I guess these things happen though. When is she due?"
"April 20," said Roman.
"Well, that's good," said Hunter, "because now we'll focus on your singles career and then after Mania and she has the baby we'll do the tag team thing if she still wants to do it."
"I'm sure she will," said Roman. "She eats, sleeps and breathes this business."
"That's good but now let's focus on you," he said, "I have some great plans for you now that you're doing the singles thing. I want to put you into a feud with myself for a couple months and wrestle you a couple times. Then I want to put you into a feud with Randy Orton leading up to the Royal Rumble have you win the Rumble and put you in the main event at Wrestlemania and have you win the belt." Roman was under the impression that Hunter could care less that Tayla was out of action and wouldn't be back for a while. In fact Roman thought that Hunter was pretty happy about the whole thing. He was getting what he had originally wanted in the first place; Roman on the road to being a main eventer which meant things were going to change even more in his life.
"Those are some big plans," said Roman, "and I am grateful but I feel like you're happy Tay is out of action."
"I am," said Hunter, "but not in a bad way. This means we can focus on you and you can focus on yourself instead of your wife."
"I'm sorry," said Roman, "What do you mean focus on myself and not my wife? She is my wife."
"Roman, you don't need that distraction. Making you two a tag team and giving you two those belts was going to hold you back now you have nothing to hold you back. I'm talking more money, more events, more publicity, more autograph signings and other things. More merchandise to be sold. You are going to go far, Roman. I'm talking more traveling and more time for you. This is what you want right?"
"I do," he said, "but we had an agreement that I would only work RAW and Smackdown and Pay-per-views not a full time schedule."
"That was before you were going to be a main eventer. You're in the main event picture now you need to work a full time schedule."
"That means more traveling leaving my wife home alone with our girls and I will never see my kids."
"That's the price of this business, Roman. It is what you signed up for. You signed up for this knowing that you would be out on the road 300 plus days a year and hardly seeing your wife."
"But that's a heavy load for my wife to handle by herself."
"I thought you had a nanny?" asked Hunter.
"I did till Tayla beat her up for hitting on me. Now we don't. Her mom helps but with me traveling more will be too much for Tayla."
"Roman, do you want a career? Do you want to be in the main event picture? Do you want to be a champion or stay on the mid-card the rest of your life because of your wife and kids? Sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Are you willing to make the sacrifices? Because if you're not we can always give this opportunity to Seth Rollins or Drew McIntyre and you could be part of 3MB."
"I know it's about sacrifice but we're talking about me leaving my wife and kids for weeks and 300 plus days out of the year. My pregnant wife at that."
"Roman, we have all done it. Your dad did it."
"I know and it was stressful for my mom."
"It is stressful but at least you'll be making the money to give them everything they want. Roman, do you want to be a champion?"
"I do but I don't know about this full time schedule and all the appearances that come along with it. Tayla, won't be happy about it."
"Do you always do what your wife says? Or do you do what you want?"
"My wife and I compromise," he said. "It's not a give and take type of marriage we work on things together."
"Then work on this together. You just said Tayla eats, sleeps and breathes this business so I'm sure she'll understand this opportunity for you. You have to think about what you want more. Do you like working part time on a mid-card status or do you want a full time schedule and work in the main event. The choice is yours Roman. You need to make it. There are tons of guys that would like to be where you are and if you can't do this I am sure they would be more than willing to take your place," said Hunter giving Roman an ultimatum which Roman didn't like. It was if he had to choose between his wife or his job. He didn't like the idea of having this type of conversation with Tayla. "So what's it going to be, Roman?"
"I don't know. Can I at least talk to my wife first before I make any decisions?"
"All right but you only have till next week to get back to me before I go to someone else? Got it?" he asked before he got up and walked away leaving Roman to decide what he wanted to do.
*A/N: So what did you think? Please review and thank-you for reading. I promise you are going to want to remember this chapter.
