Disclaimer: All the events and character description taken place in this story is COMPLETELY FICTION. No copyright infringement intended. All characters are copy written to their respective owners. No profit is being made from this story. It should be viewed only as entertainment.

Chapter Eighteen

"Mommy?" Aurora called out the moment her head popped up from the pillow. She had slept through the night in her bed at her father's house. The three year old knew that she was no longer at her grandparents' house, so her mother must be where ever she was too. Without an answer or any sign of her mother, Aurora quickly pulled back the covers of the bed and got out of it.

"Mommy, where are you?" Aurora cried out. Her voice this time was whiny as she was now on the verge of crying. She rubbed her eyes with her right hand as she moved toward the doorway of her room.

"Paul, she's awake." Torrie called back to Levesque as she stood in the hallway. She had thought she heard the child from inside the master bedroom and had left to check. She was wearing one of Paul's large t-shirts that came down to her knees, covering her naked body adequately.

"I want my mommy." Aurora blurted out through tears the moment she saw Torrie Wilson walking toward her.

"Oh, sweetie, it's okay. You're at your daddy's house. Come here, little one." Torrie said in a soothing hushed voice and she quickly scooped Aurora into her arms. Her motherly instincts had taken over without her even thinking about it.

"Mommy! I want my mommy! I want my mommy and my daddy!" Aurora continued to demand through her tears while Torrie tried to comfort her.

"Look, sweetheart, there's your daddy. Do you want to go to him?" Torrie asked in a loving voice the moment Paul joined them in the hallway in his briefs. She turned so that Aurora could see her father standing there.

Paul walked up to them, ready to receive his child the moment Torrie offered the three year old the option to be given to him. Aurora shook her head and turned away; her crying did not cease. Torrie looked at Paul with a confused look on her face. She would have never expected his own daughter to be so upset while being with him. Wasn't she used to spending time with him?

"Aurora, look, it's a little kitty cat. Do you see it?" Torrie asked in a loud voice, so that she could be heard over Aurora's crying jag. She had turned around and was going back into the child's bedroom; her finger pointing at a nearby pink shelf.

"Kitty cat?" Aurora asked, her crying suddenly came to a halt because Wilson had peaked in interest in something other than her mother.

"Look, it's a baby kitten, Aurora. Isn't it cute?" She asked enthusiastically, stopping at a Fur Real friends newborn kitten toy that was sitting on the shelf. It was just one of the toys that Paul had bought and placed in his child's room indiscriminately.

"It's a baby kitty?" Aurora asked with tears still in her eyes as she looked at Torrie.

"Shh, yeah, don't cry because it will scare the kitten. You're the kitten's mommy so you can't scare her. Do you want to hold and pet her?"

Torrie's question got an immediate response from the small child as she nodded with her mouth gapped open as she starred at the new unfamiliar toy. With her free hand, Torrie took the toy and with one of her fingertips, flicked the small black switch on the bottom of the toy. The kitten purred and made small realistic movements that mimicked a real kitten that was just born. Aurora's eyes widened when she saw the toy move, her hands reached out for it.

"This my kitty cat?" Aurora asked the moment Torrie placed the toy in her arms.

"It sure is…You have to be the kitty's mommy. You can't cry because it will scare her. Will you pet and hold the kitty?" Torrie asked in a sweet voice.

"Yeah…" Aurora replied not taking her eyes off of the moving toy. She was now smiling and stroking the fake fur on the toy.

Torrie looked up and smiled over at Paul who was amazed by her ability to calm Aurora right down. If only she had been there to do so the weekend after Aurora's third birthday which was the last time she had been with him. Perhaps Torrie was even more useful to him than he thought. In addition to being pretty damn good in the sack, she actually had a way with children. Levesque felt great. He actually got laid the night before and now he now had his daughter with him and she wasn't having a meltdown.

Levesque heard his cell phone beeping from inside his master bedroom. It was letting him know that he had an incoming text message. He gave his new girlfriend a quick smile before he left the hallway to grab his phone from his nightstand. His face formed a smile when he saw that the text message was from his ex-wife.

"Hey, Kurt and I are back from NYC, do you want me to drop off some clothes and things for Aurora?" Was what the message read.

Stephanie was giving him the opportunity to make a play already. The events were sure lining up themselves. He was able to talk Torrie Wilson into staying the night with him and now he was going to be able to flaunt that fact right in front of Steph. Without hesitation, he thumbed out a reply and sent it back to his ex-wife.

"I think I should get dressed and be on my way. I have to get back to Houston." Torrie said as she entered the bedroom with Aurora following her. Little Aurora was still holding on tight to her new toy kitten like it was gold.

"Hey no, stay with me for the morning…You look really sexy in my t-shirt and I could really use your help with Aurora since you seem to have a way with kids." Paul replied in a sweet and loving voice as he approached his girlfriend. He was doing his best to play his part as a loving new beau with the hope she would stay at least until Stephanie showed up.

Torrie tilted her head to the side and smiled showing that she was thinking about staying the morning at his request. She was watching him as he put on his white cloth robe to cover his muscular frame and briefs.

"Okay, I'll stay…" Torrie finally said. She moved forward and took each end of the tie on Paul's robe and tied it for him. He leaned in and gave her a nice long kiss so that she knew that she made the right decision.

"You don't have any clothes for her to put on?" Torrie asked Paul while she lifted Aurora into the boaster seat Paul had put into one of the kitchen chairs.

"There weren't any clean ones in the travel bag her mother sent. I'll see about getting some clothes from Steph in a bit. I just want to get some breakfast in her." Levesque explained as he bent over and gave his little girl a kiss on her forehead. Aurora was very much content as she sat there with the toy kitten on the kitchen table. She was still petting the fake kitten fur.

"Hey, can you get the door for me? I think it's just a package being dropped off. I'll be right there. I just want to give Aurora her breakfast." Paul told Torrie the moment the doorbell rang.

"Yeah sure, no problem, I'll bring it in." She said quickly leaving the kitchen. Once she left the room, a smile formed on Levesque's face. It wasn't UPS or the US Postal Service. He knew exactly who it was. He just wished he had a camera mounted outside of his front door so he could see the look on Steph's face when she saw Torrie.

Torrie walked into the foyer and approached the front door. She unlocked and opened the door to find out who was showing up on Paul's doorstep in the midmorning. Her eyes widened and she gave a smile showing her embarrassment when she saw Stephanie McMahon-Angle standing there in front of her. This looked really bad. There was Paul's ex-wife, and not to mention her old friend and co-worker standing in front of her while she wore nothing but an oversized t-shirt and her thong.

"Hello Torrie." Stephanie said politely as gave her old friend a quickly smile. Her eyes quickly scanning the barely clothed woman while she placed a bag containing Aurora's clothing on the front porch so that she could move Andrew to her other hip.

"Hi Steph, this is an unexpected surprise…" Wilson replied sheepishly. She didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah well, Paul said I could drop off some clean clothes for our daughter. I didn't mean to interrupt anything." Stephanie replied

"Oh, you weren't interrupting anything." Wilson assured her.

"Hey Paul! Stephanie's here with clothes for Aurora!" Torrie then shouted out from inside the house. She was eager for Levesque to make it on the scene so that he could share some of the awkwardness with her.

Wilson heard Paul respond and then she turned back to Stephanie. She noticed little Andrew who was now resting his head on his mother's shoulder; his little forehead pressed against Steph's neck. He was softly sucking on his pacifier; his eyes looked heavy and a little glazed over.

"Your son is adorable, how old is he?" Torrie inquired. It was a way for her to take the attention off of her and the uneasiness of the situation and put it on the cute baby.

"Thank you, Andrew is going to be a year old in a few weeks. He's not feeling very well this morning. Kurt and I picked him up from my parents' house earlier." Steph replied before giving a soft kiss to her son's soft left cheek.

"Aw, yeah I can tell he doesn't feel well. Poor little guy."

Finally Paul graced the women with his presence at the front door. He was still in his robe that was now opened a little in the front to obviously expose a bit of his muscular torso. When Stephanie saw her ex-husband, she gave him a nice smile before pointing down at the back of clothes that she had sat next to her on the porch.

"You had to bring the kid with you?" Levesque asked in a voice that showed his annoyance. He folded his arms like a child who was getting ready to pout. He didn't understand why Angle's kid had to be with her. Why couldn't she have left him in the car? Or better yet, why even bring him at all.

Torrie noticed the change in Paul's demeanor. Why did he care if Stephanie brought her infant son to drop off Aurora's clothing? Why was he letting a simple thing like that upset him? Stephanie was being nothing but polite and pleasant given the circumstances that she arrived to find, with both Paul and herself not yet dressed. He wasn't acting like the Paul she had spent the night with. In fact, he was acting as if he wasn't surprised at all by Steph's arrival. Did he ask her to come over?

"Kurt wanted to get his seven mile run out of the way before it gets too hot so I brought Andy with me to drop off the clothes for his sister." Steph was quick to explain. She was slowly swaying back and forth as a reaction to the baby beginning to fuss a little.

"Wow, what a model father!" Paul retorted with fake enthusiasm as he shot his ex-wife a mean look.

The fact that Stephanie brought up her husband, the man that Paul detested, really got under his skin. Angle could have the morning off free of responsibility and that was completely fine with her. If it would have been him, she would have called him selfish for working out instead of taking care of his sick child. But of course, the "Olympic Wonder Boy" was held to a different standard as a husband.

"Paul, I'm going to take a quick shower. Stephanie, it was nice seeing you. I hope your little one feels better soon." Torrie said cutting through the tension that she could see was building. She needed to excuse herself from the situation.

"Nice seeing you too, Torrie. And thank you." Steph replied back as Wilson quickly slipped away from the foyer toward the staircase.

"I could do without the childish comments…" Stephanie finally said to her ex after Torrie was now out of sight and earshot.

"Well, I'll take the clothes now. I'm sure Torrie is going to want some company in the shower. I'm sure you already knew that we're seeing each other." Paul said keeping his eyes of her as he moved to grab the bag of clothing.

"Paul, that's your business. I really don't want to hear about it. Aurora is staying with you. The whole point of you taking her last night was that so you could spend some time with her. How necessary was it to have an overnight guest when you have our child for the night?" Steph asked being completely honest about her view of the situation.

"It's no different than you and Angle. The two of you fornicate under the same roof as our daughter all the time. Hell, Steph, you two were even doing that when we were still married. So spare me the parenting lecture, huh?"

"Kurt is my husband and we are very discrete. And if you are going to point the finger on the topic of marital indiscretions, you most definitely have three fingers pointing right back at you. I'm sorry, Paul. I don't have all day to stand outside your house and bicker with you. I have a sick baby to take care of. Just please promise me that you'll use this time you have with Aurora to be with her. Don't leave her by herself." Steph replied looking her ex-husband directly in his eyes.

"Oh come on, would you please? She's in the kitchen having breakfast. I was with her when you showed up. I've been perfectly attentive to her. She's my child. If anything, I think you should be more worried about that m.m.a obsessed husband of yours being neglectful of our child." Paul quickly replied giving his ex-wife a look to show how ridiculous she was being.

Before Steph could reply, Aurora's loud cry could be heard from inside the house. It was only the cry from their daughter that was able to end the quarrelling between them.

"Aurora?" Stephanie said aloud. Her voice was full of concern as she walked right into the house without even asking if she was allowed entry. It was her daughter who was crying, and she needed to go to her.

Paul was just as quick to spring into action. He followed in ex-wife closely behind, trying to keep up in his slippers. Even though Steph wasn't familiar with the house, she had no trouble following the sound of her crying child.

"Oh, Aurora, are you okay? What happened, honey?" Steph asked running to her child's aid.

The chair and booster seat that Aurora had been sitting on was now on the floor along with the three year old. She was sitting up, yet still on her side in the position she fell in. Next to her was the toy kitten. The sight of her mother only made her crying intensify as she reached out for her. Steph set Andrew on his wobbly feet after crouching down next to her fallen child. Andy quickly grabbed hold of his mother's shirt to keep himself steady of his feet. He was being whiny himself after being put down.

"Aurora, tell mommy how you fell." Steph instructed her daughter as she helped her to her feet. The three year old continued to cry and she put her arms around her mother, just wanting to be comforted.

"She was completely fine when I left here sitting there eating." Paul said in his defense as he stood right next to Stephanie. He would have never left her in the kitchen by herself if he knew that her somehow hurting herself was a possibility. She wasn't a little baby anymore.

"Aurora, use words, what happened? How did you fall on the floor? Tell Mommy." Steph said speaking clearly and at a volume that her crying daughter could hear and understand what she was asking of her over her own crying.

"Kitty cat falled down." Aurora finally said as she reached out for the toy on the floor. She grabbed it and looked back at her mother; the tears still rolling down her cheeks.

"Were you trying to reach the kitty and you fell too?" Steph asked, now having an idea how her child ended up on the kitchen floor.

"Yeah, kitty and me falled down…Kitty's okay, Mommy, see?" Aurora replied holding up the toy for her mother to inspect. She seemed to be calming down.

"Yes I see that. I'm glad you're okay too." Steph responded while pulling down on her daughter's pajama top to pull it down all the way. It must have gotten bunched up when she fell.

"Mommy, we going home now?" The three year old asked turning her head to the side as she looked at her mother inquisitively. When Stephanie didn't answer right away, Aurora grabbed hold of her mother's hand and started trying to walk toward the hallway.

Steph raised her eyebrows as she looked at her little girl. She then glanced at her fussy son, and then up at her ex-husband. To Paul, it actually looked like she was debating on whether or not she would take Aurora home with her. This was supposed to be his time with his daughter. It really hurt him that Aurora only thought of the Angle home as being her home. This, his house, was just as much as her home as theirs was.

"No, Aurora. You're staying with Daddy. Your mommy is going back to her house. You'll see her tomorrow. You have a home here with Daddy too." Paul told his daughter. He wasn't going to give his ex-wife the chance to decide if Aurora was going to stay with him or not.

"No, I go with Mommy… I go home now…" Aurora muttered in a long whine. She was now wearing a pouty face that showed she was expecting to get what she wanted.

She was starting to get emotionally upset again with the idea of staying with her father and her mother leaving without her. At the age of three, she already liked the idea of having things the way she wanted them and would become very upset if she didn't.

"You really want to go home? Don't you want to be with Daddy?" Steph asked her child as she pointed up at Paul so that Aurora would be completely clear on who Daddy was. Stephanie turned to look at Levesque but Aurora placed her hands on her face and made her look at her.

"Let's go home. I go home pweaze." Aurora said looking directly at her mother. She even added a 'please' to her request. Stephanie and Kurt had been working with her to use 'pleases' and 'thank yous' when asking and getting things.

"Okay, well Daddy needs to get your stuff together and we'll head home." Steph finally said picking up baby Andy as she finally stood up.

"Woah, hey, she's not going anywhere. This is my time with her." Paul said to his ex as she blocked Stephanie's path of exiting the kitchen.

"It was up to her if she wanted to say. She said she wanted to come home with me." Stephanie replied trying to go around her ex-husband.

"She's only three years old. She isn't old enough to make the decision of with who she spends time with. It's my right as her father to have her for another day. This isn't negotiable, Steph." Levesque said as he moved again and cut off her stride.

"Fine, what do you want to do, Paul? Do you want to try and explain to her why she has to stay here while her mother and brother leave? She doesn't understand joint custody. This has nothing to do with me trying to keep you from seeing her. I know you are her father, but this is about Aurora. I don't want her to start associating the feeling of being left and detached from me with spending time with you. Do you want that?"

"No, I don't want that…"

Levesque knew what she was saying. If he was to force Aurora to stay with him, in her eyes, he was the bad man who was keeping her apart from her mother. He didn't want his baby girl to see him that way. Paul wanted his child to want to be with him; not to be forced to do so. He was so tired of being the bad guy in every situation.

If only he could get back together with Stephanie. If they could start over together, everything would be okay. Their daughter wouldn't feel the need to have to choose her attachment to her mother over bonding and spending time with him. He wanted more than anything to tell Stephanie that. He wished he could convince her of how much he still wanted to be with her. But how could he? There she was trying to pack up their daughter and leave his house with Kurt Angle's child perched on her hip. There was no way she was going to take him seriously.

"Will you please get her things together and help me put them in my car?" Steph asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, sure…" Levesque muttered. He was resigned to the fact that his time with his daughter was coming to an end.

Paul collected all of his daughter's things that her grandmother had sent with her. He then brought them and the back Stephanie had brought outside to Stephanie's Porsche Cayenne that was parked and running toward the end of his driveway. Steph was already getting the children settled in for the ride. Andrew was already in his car seat, and now his mother was helping his sister get buckled in.

"Thanks for getting the stuff together and carrying it out." Steph said giving her ex a smile to show her gratitude. She took the bags from him after stepping down from her automobile. She then walked to the back of the car to place the stuff in the back. This allowed Paul time to say goodbye to his child. He approached his little girl who was now content and playing with the toy kitten.

"I love you very much, Aurora. And I'm sad that you are going home early. I love being with you. And I'm very lonely without you and Mommy." Paul told his daughter. His voice was full of sincerity as he stroked her hair. Its color and texture reminded him of Steph and how he used to run his hands through hers.

"Take kitty cat." Aurora told him as gave her father a warm smile and then held out her toy kitten to him.

"That's your toy from Daddy." Paul replied not wanting to take it from his daughter.

"Kitty will make you happy. Kitty keep you company, okay?" Aurora asked dangling the toy out of the car for her father to take.

"Thank you, sweetheart." Paul replied feeling somewhat choked up by his daughter's cute attempt o make him feel better. It showed him that she obviously cared about him and how he was feeling. He took the toy and in return gave her a quick peck on the cheek. Slowly, he closed the car door.

"Take care, Paul. I'll call you soon and we can set up a time when you can have her again for a few days." Stephanie said walking back to the driver side door.

"Maybe we could set aside some time where both of us could be with her…together." Paul suggested as he opened the car door for Steph before she had the chance to.

"Yeah, I think that's what we'll have to do." Steph replied with a smile before getting into the car. Just like he had done for Aurora, Paul closed the door for his former wife.

He stood there and watched her put the Porsche into reverse. Before she turned around to look so that she could back out, she gave him a little wave goodbye which he mirrored with a smile. It was when she slowly backed out of his driveway that his smile melted away. The two most important people in his life were leaving him and going home; their home that was with another man.

Torrie peered down from the upstairs window while Stephanie's tan Porsche pulled away with Levesque watching. Her lips parted with her mouth gaping open slightly, as she saw the look on Paul's face when he turned around to walk back toward the house carrying the toy. He looked so unhappy. Torrie was upset herself. There was no way Stephanie had just shown up without letting Paul know she was coming over. Why would Paul not give her a heads up about his ex-wife showing up?