Chapter 5

Dave Batista drove silently toward the large Tutor style house in San Diego. He had to admit, it had been a pretty good day; even if it wasn't what he had planned. He was happy to see his daughter and his girlfriend talking in the car as they drove to Chase's school. Chase sat in the backseat and Britain in the front. She might as well have been in the back because she sat facing Chase for the entire drive. He half heartily listened to two of them talk about everything from the new fall fashions, to the who's who of the Hollywood party scene.

The visit to UCLA had been a good one. Chase registered for much harder classes than he would have, but she was smart and she could handle it. She got her schedule: Economics, Anatomy & Physiology, European Renaissance, and Intro to Drawing. She had not declared a major, so she took classes that she thought "may be fun". He, on the other hand, did not think they sounded that fun when the book store informed him that her books would cost $600.

Even the trip to her new apartment had not been as bad as he was expecting. The 3 bedroom apartment sat four blocks from the main campus. Although it was in a nice, quiet, gated community, he still didn't like it. He had checked the place out, several times before he agreed to let her move; but he still did not feel safe with her being there, alone.

"I'm not alone. I've got 2 roommates!" Chase defended throwing two of her bags in the middle of the empty room with balcony that overlooked the park. They had been over this more times than she cared to count.

"You are alone. You have no adult supervision." He corrected as he placed a large trunk on the floor.

"Daddy, I'm an adult. I can supervise myself." The smile she gave him didn't help her case any. She may have been an adult by age, but she was a baby to him. That face just proved the point. He shook his head and mumbled to himself that this was a bad idea, as he slowly walked into the living room.

He wrapped his large arms around Britain and rested his chin on the top of her head. "I'm not over reacting, am I?" Hoping that she would say no, he waited to see what she would say.

"You just want her to be safe. Hey…what if I got X to come by and check on her?"

The thought made him burst out with laughter. X couldn't keep track of her own clothes most of the time, how the hell was she going to look out for his child. If she could stop partying and screwing every guy she met, why not have her come over and show the kid how a proper young lady should act. He could feel Britain's eyes looking at him for an answer. "No way."

She enclosed her arms around his waist, before patting his backside. "I could ask my parents or my brother to keep an eye out for her."

He halted before he protested. That actually wasn't such a bad idea. Britain's brother was a grad student at UCLA. Her parents lived in Santa Diego, only 10 miles from the school. If there were an emergency, any one of them could be there in about five minutes.

"You don't think they'd mind?" He wondered how her father would respond to the request to watch out for his child, which was something that he should be there to do.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey Matt?" Jeff casually walked toward the window in his brother's hotel room. "Did you know Dave Batista had kids?" He wanted to come right out and ask if Matt knew anything about his daughter, but he didn't want to hear Matt's mouth. Matt and Dave were better friends than he and Dave were. Matt and Dave's friendship started during the time while Dave was with the Dudley Boyz as Deacon Batista.

"Yeah, he's got three." Matt said looking through his bag. Jeff shrugged and continued looking out the window. "All girls. I'm not sure how old they are now, but the oldest one should be about 20, 21, somethin' like that."

"She'll be 20 in two weeks." Jeff spat out without thinking.

Matt shook his head. "How'd you know that?"

Jeff smiled a little and thought of a way to answer the question without sounding stupid. "She was the blonde with him downstairs."

Matt looked at Jeff in disbelief. "That was Chase? Good God, she grew up fast. She was about 14 the last time I saw her. She had these huge braces and these skinny legs. It's amazin' what puberty can do…" Matt shook his head and went back to his bag. He paused and looked up at Jeff again. "Oh no. Not that one. She's not for you, Jeffro."

Jeff shrugged off Matt's warning. Chase. How fitting. She was sent to chase away my creative block or that I will Dave Batista be chasing me for looking at her the wrong way? Either way, he knew this would not be the last time he saw her.

It couldn't be.

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Britain stepped out of the truck and waited to walk up the driveway with Dave and Chase. She looked at her parents' house and with affection. She loved that house. Although she was born and raised back East, her family came to California when she was fourteen. She missed Baltimore, but quickly considered this house in San Diego her home.

She opened the door and looked in the living room. To her surprise, no one was in there. Her dad was always in the living room watching TV; but today he wasn't. "Hello." She called out as Dave and Chase took a seat on the couch.

From out of the kitchen a tall, handsome man with grey hair and a strong jaw line, walked in the room. To look at him, you wouldn't think that he was related to her, until you saw his eyes. She had definitely inherited those pale blue-grey eyes from her father.

"Vati!" she smiled and ran to hug him.

"Halo, liebchen." He replied hugging his daughter and kissing her on the cheek. "You come home and don't call your own fazer?" His deep German accent was tickled by his gentle laughter.

"I'd like you to meet my father, Johan Weis. Vati, this is Chase, Dave's daughter." Johan regarded Chase with a huge smile and a warm hug. Urging both Dave and Chase to have a seat, he retreated to the kitchen to get beverages, while Britain ran upstairs to find her mother and to see if her younger brother was around.

The living room was large room, decorated in soft yellows and oranges. There was very little in the room in the way of ornaments, but it was heavily decorated with family photos. There were pictures of her father as a child in Munich, of her mom outside of their house in Baltimore, and one of Britain and her brother as children on the beach with no teeth. Dave couldn't help but to smile to see her as a child.

Chase walked over to the mantle and looked at a family portrait of the Weis' that had to have been 10 years old. She recognized Johan immediately. His hair was more of a sandy brown than it was now, but he still looked the same. Next to Johan, who was easily 6'2", was a rather short woman with a toffee complexion. She was about 5 feet, if she were that tall. She had long wavy black hair, much like Britain's. In fact, if Britain were that dark and had hazel eyes, she would swear that was her.

"Is this her mom?" Chase asked. Dave walked over to the mantel and looked at the picture with his daughter.

"Yeah. That's Mia." He smiled at the picture. If history was true to form, Britain would end up looking just like her when she got older. At 54, Mia was still a very beautiful woman; he would even venture to say that she was sexy. He smiled at the prospect of Britain still being that hot at that age. "One of her parents is Black and the other is Mexican." Dave explained regarding Mia's dark skin. Chase nodded. So that's how Britain tans so well.

"That's her little brother, Croix." Dave said pointing to the teenaged boy in the picture. He was an attractive young man. He looked exactly like Johan, but with Mia's color. And next to Croix stood Britain. Her creamy complexion was a perfect result of her mother's bronze and her father's pale skin.

Chase moved over the mantel and read the wedding announcement that was encased in a bronze frame. We are proud to announce the marriage of our children: Johan Helmut Weis and Mia Pilar Johnson, 21 June 1977, Maria Plain Salzburg, Austria.

She also noticed the porcelain baby shoes which were inscribed with Britain Magdalena Weis and the silver pair that held the name, Croix Alejandro Weis. She turned to her father and tried not to laugh, "Her initials are BMW? That's too funny." Dave laughed too.

Britain ran down the stairs followed by Mia. "Ma, this is Chase. Chase this is my Ma, Mia." Walking into the kitchen, she saw Mia shake hands with Chase and walk over to Dave and hug him tightly.

At Mia's suggestion, they retreated to the deck for lunch. Croix had called and said that he was running late, so they should start with him. "So, Britain and Croix are really unusual names. How'd you come up with those?" Chase asked Mia, while handing her the salad. Mia and Britain both knew this was Johan's favorite story, so they sat back and let him tell it.

"When I was a young man, in Munich, I work as a banker with Deutsch Bank Alex. Brown. I come to this country on business and I met my Mia. She was so beautiful; I knew if I went home, I had to have her. So we got married. About 1 year after marriage, we were traveling. Somewhere between Whales and Scotland, she was made…" He gestured toward Britain, "We call her Britain because we don't know exactly where it happened; we just know it was in Great Britain." He left out the part of the story of how they came to the US after they found out that she was on the way. He took a transfer to the Baltimore branch of Deutsche Bank, so that Mia could be near her family when the baby came.

"Now Croix, happened during our anniversary when Britain was three. Can you guess were we went?" Mia laughed.

"St. Croix?" Chase laughed back.

Mia went on to explain how her children hated their names, but should be lucky that they weren't conceived in Hong Kong or Bangladesh or somewhere like that. Those names would have been much worse.

"What does 'fah-tee' mean?" Chase asked looking at Britain.

"It's Vati, with a V. In German, father is Vater, so, Vati is like Daddy." Britain said as she wrapped her arms around her father's arm and put her head on his shoulder.

Dave laughed; no matter how much she told him before, it was funny to see how much of a daddy's girl she actually was. "See, you're not the only grown woman who still calls the old man, Daddy." He said nudging Chase in the arm.

"So you speak German?" Chase asked again. Britain nodded.

"Zey both do. I make sure my children, know their culture." Johan said smiling proudly.

"They speak Spanish too." Mia piped in.

"You have no idea how confusing it was growing up. Depending on which grandparents' house we were at, we didn't know what language to speak. But it was cool. My brother and Ma were always whispering in Spanish to each other and me and Vati, in German. But you know what's funny? He can't speak Spanish and she can't speak German." Britain said touching her mother's arm.

Dave smiled tenderly at the closeness of her family. He finally felt safe that his daughter would be in good hands with them around. Johan was all too happy to have a new girl to look out for. He promised that he would check on her at least once a week and he would have Croix look out for her on campus.

Dave left feeling like the weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders.