Disclaimer Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and the various other superstars mentioned in this story are the property of the WWE and/or the actors / sports entertainers / superstars that portray them. This story is intended as tribute only and is not intended to infringe on any copyrights.

Original characters are the property of myself, and only children of my own imagination. Any resemblance to any real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

The Girl Who Lives
Part Three

A few minutes after Dean had left, Seth left the locker room too, heading to the backstage area where the meet and greets were held. He was a little surprised to see Preston and his family there, he thought that they might have wanted to take Preston home after the show, because he had been there almost all day. But apparently, the nap Dean had seen him take had revived him, because he was alert and happy to be with his WWE buddies again. Dolph was holding him, telling him how awesome he was, Andrea and Myron standing close. Payton was there too, but she was standing off to the side. When Seth saw her, he smiled and waved. She hesitated, then smiled and waved back. Fortunately, Preston didn't see and offer his opinion on if Payton should be allowed to even wave at Seth.

He would have liked to have gone over and speak to Payton again, tell her that he didn't blame her for what happened with Preston, just in case she still felt bad about the slap, but he didn't want to push Preston's buttons or fall into another situation where he had to deal with a six year old calling him out as the bad man. Besides, he had plenty of backstage fans of his own who wanted his autograph, to take selfies with him, and ask him questions, so he was fairly busy.

The next day he had an interview with a local morning radio show, then another one with a local cable sports show. When he was done with those, he barely had time for two hours at the gym, before he had to report to the arena again for the Smackdown taping. He had drunk a protein drink for breakfast, and eschewed from the donuts and pastry offered to him at both interviews. When he went for one of the protein/energy bars in his gym bag, he was dismayed to realize he was out. By the time he got to the arena, he was quite hungry.

Walking by the same backstage lounge as yesterday, he saw an almost duplicate the same scene, too. Preston with his favorite wrestlers and divas, his parents keeping close eye on their son, and Payton in the corner. She wore another too-large T-shirt, one of Daniel Bryan's this time, and was sitting on the same window ledge even sitting in the same forlorn position, arms wrapped around her knees. Her hair was back to looking as if it had barely met a comb or brush that day.

This time Seth didn't hesitate. He walked in, walked over to her and asked her if she wanted to go get lunch with him again. She grinned and quickly agreed. He didn't as much ask her parents, than told them he was going down to catering and wanted her to tag along. They agreed and soon enough the two were heading down the hall again.

"I'm sorry about Preston," she told him, the moment they were out of the room. "He was kind of cranky yesterday, he'd had a pretty long day."

"I don't blame you for Preston," he said. He was holding her hand again too, and today she was doing a cross between a skip and a walk that he found rather endearing. The last time he visited Roman's family, he and Leah had gone for a walk and she had done the same thing, swinging his arm back and forth with hers, as if it was some type of dance that even if he didn't know the steps, she could still make him part of it. It must be a little girl thing, he thought, pretty sure he had never done it when he was younger. "Your parents didn't mind about the T-shirts and hoodie you got yesterday, did they?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "I just can't wear them around Preston," she said, looking a little sad.

When are you not around Preston? he wanted to ask, but didn't. "That's okay," he said instead, not wanting her to feel any worse than she obviously did. "Maybe you can wear them like night shirts or something?"

"Maybe." She frowned. "I could have worn them to grandma and grandpa's, but I don't go there anymore."

"Oh?" Before he could think if it was a good idea to pry, he found himself asking, "Why not?"

She shrugged and looked sad for a moment. "Mom and Dad said I can't go there anymore. I used to go there sometimes when they had to take Preston to St. Jude's, so I could go to school. Then, Mom and Dad took me out of school. I think that's what made everyone upset. Grandma and Grandpa wanted me to keep going to school."

She isn't going to school? Seth thought, then realized that of course she wasn't. If she were in school, she wouldn't be traveling around with her family, going to different WWE events. They were in Nebraska now, not too far from Iowa, but far enough that they hadn't gone home last night and come back this morning, they had spent the night at a hotel. "Are you home schooled?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

She shrugged. "Yeah. I guess. I have workbooks and stuff I do. Mom and Dad check them sometimes to make sure I'm doing them right."

Seth had a funny feeling "Sometimes" was closer to "Rarely." It seemed odd to him that a family with so much on its plate would add the burden of home schooling their daughter especially when there were grandparents that would have been willing to help out. But he said nothing, feeling like he was trying to get a child to talk badly about her family. He had found himself talking about Payton to Kayla last night when the spoke on the phone, something they tried to do every night for at least a half an hour. Seth found he didn't sleep as well on those nights when they didn't have that time. Kayla had teased him about his new 'girl friend,' but thought it was nice that Seth had taken the girl under his wing for a bit. Seth hadn't told her about Preston hitting him at the show, it was during a commercial and he didn't want sound as if he had something negative to say about a sick child. Despite what Dean said, Seth felt that it was more than likely he was over reacting to Preston. Everyone else thought Preston was adorable, he was most likely being too hard on the kid because he and the kid just didn't get along.

It was the same catering company and other than a few dishes removed and other ones substituted, lunch was pretty much the same yesterday as it was today. Payton picked the same dishes too, except instead of green beans she went with cooked carrots and her salad was bigger.

The catering area was quiet, so they sat down alone at a table together. Payton prayed again, the same prayer as yesterday, thanking God that Preston was having a good day and requesting Preston be cured. Seth respectfully waited for her to finish before he spoke. "I probably shouldn't have gone over to you last night," Seth remarked. "That was probably the last straw for Preston."

"I'm glad you did," Payton said, as she put a forkful of salad in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

"Yeah, but I might have damaged your rep," Seth teased as he opened up the bottle of grape flavored water for her, and poured some in cup. "Consorting with the bad guys and all."

She grinned. "I like bad guys," she reminded him.

"Yeah," He put the lid on the cup and put a straw in it and handed it to her. "You said you liked our theme music better."

She giggled this time, a high noise, but sweet in its enthusiasm and innocence. "No, I didn't!" She shook her head vigorously too. "I like Ziggler's song more than yours."

"Ouch!" He put his hand over his heart, mocking a gun shot. "You're hurting my pride!"

"That's not your fault, silly," she informed him. "You don't pick your music, do you?"

"Nope," he shook his head, opening his own bottle of water. He didn't bother with a cup or straw, he just drank from the plastic bottle. "We have someone who writes it for us."

"Well then." She speared a tomato wedge and popped it in her mouth. "I said I like bad guys because they do what they want and never feel bad about it."

"Sometimes I feel bad about things," he said, a small grin playing over his lips.

"You do?" she looked surprised.

"Yeah, when my evil plans don't work, I feel really bad."

She stared at him for a moment, letting the words sink in then laughed. "No, that's not what I'm talking 'bout, either!"

"Then what do you mean?" he asked.

She had just put a forkful of chicken in her mouth and she chewed thoughtfully for a moment, then took a sip of grape water. "Bad guys cheat and they don't care as long as they win. I mean, I don't want to cheat, but part of the reason I don't want to cheat is because I'd feel bad if I did. I wouldn't feel like the win meant anything."

He smiled. "And you think bad guys never have that feeling?"

She nodded. "Yeah, 'cause if they did, they'd stop cheating."

He tried not to laugh, but a small chuckle escaped anyway. She had a good point in a relatively simple way. She wasn't thinking about what the stakes would be, for example a promise of more money might urge folks to cheat, even if it did make them feel bad.

"Also, bad guys don't feel bad about having bad thoughts," she continued, not seeming to notice his amusement. "You never hear a bad guy going, 'he got sick and it's my fault, 'cause I had bad thoughts.'"

His amusement stopped as he sensed there was more going on than idle observation. "Do you feel responsible for things because you have bad thoughts?" he asked her.

She frowned and stabbed a carrot slice with her fork, almost viciously, and put it in her mouth. She took so long to chew that Seth was starting to think she wasn't going to answer, when she spoke up. "The Bible says that thinking things is as bad as doing them."

Now it was his turn to focus on his food. He didn't want to interfere with the religious training she was receiving from her parents and her church, but this was the type of thing that made him wonder. He had his own beliefs and ideals, but it bothered him that a lot of religions seemed to be about making people feel bad for everything. That they created an ideal no one could live up to, so they could make you feel bad for failing to live up to the impossible. To say that thoughts were as bad as deeds sent out a strong message, "You'll never be good enough for the God you worship." It also dumped a load of guilt if you did have bad thoughts and something bad happened. Was it fate? Or did your bad thought somehow cause God to do bad things?

After playing with his food for awhile, Seth finally spoke, "Do you really feel God would punish someone for the thoughts you have?"

Payton shrugged, frowned, and then became fascinated with her food again, not in eating it, but staring at it. "I don't know," she finally admitted. "It doesn't seem right that you can think something bad and it would happen to that person, but what if it does?" She looked away from her plate, into his eyes. "What happens if you are angry, really angry, and you think that you... hate someone or something and then something really terrible happens to them? Did God make that happen? Just to show you that your thoughts are bad?"

"I don't think so," Seth said, picking his words as carefully as if each one was capable of exploding. "It doesn't seem right to me that God would punish one person because another person had bad thoughts about them. It doesn't make sense, does it? Because everyone gets mad at someone and everyone has had someone mad at them, at least sometimes in their lives, right?" He paused, giving her a chance to nod, which she did. "Okay, so if God punished someone for having bad thoughts about another person, by actually allowing bad things to happen to that other person, don't you think everyone would be constantly having bad things happen to them? I mean, everyone has bad thoughts sometimes. But that's all they are is thoughts. Thoughts don't hurt people, actions do."

"I guess," she said, hesitantly, as if she wasn't sure if she agreed or not.

"Let's look at the other side of the coin," he said, wanting to get back on safer ground. "If bad thoughts are just the same as doing bad things, then the reverse would be true too, that good thoughts would be the same as doing good things, right?" He paused again to let her absorb this, and when she nodded, he continued. "So, I guess that would mean that if I see someone in trouble, I don't have to help them, I just have to think it, right?" He paused and thought quickly of an example he could use. "If I see someone holding too much in their hands and they need the door open for them, I don't really have to go hold open the door. Just thinking that I wish they could get out of the door will make that happen. Right?"

"No," she disagreed. "You have to open the door."

"Yeah," Seth said, nodding. "All the good thoughts won't help if someone doesn't hold open the door. I think bad thoughts work the same way. I can think bad thoughts about someone and it isn't nice for me to do that, but they're still just thoughts. My bad thoughts won't hurt someone else unless I act on them. The only person my bad thoughts hurt is me. Because thinking bad thoughts all the time isn't good for you. But the occasional bad thought, especially if that person is really getting on your last nerve is normal. I don't think God would punish someone just because someone else had bad thoughts about them."

Her brow furrowed and it was obvious she was thinking hard about this. She opened her mouth a couple times as if to speak, then closed it. Finally, she nodded and went back to eating, and Seth understood she was putting an end to the topic. He had a feeling she would reflect on his words later and he hoped that maybe they would bring a small sense of comfort to her.

Before they could start discussing anything else, Dean walked into the area, looked around, then headed directly to their table. "Hey, Payton, hey, Seth," he began and before either of them could return his greeting he continued, "this place has an awesome boiler room, Roman and I checked it out."

Seth had a feeling where this conversation was going, but decided to let Dean play it out. "Oh? Did you two film some promos?"

"Actually, I did," Dean admitted. "Roman filmed his in the locker room. But that's not what I'm here about. Seth, don't you get it, there is an awesome boiler room."

"Yeah, we heard you the first time," Seth said.

"Yeah, you heard," Dean said, "but you don't get it. This place has an awesome boiler room, and we have access to it."

"And that means?"

Dean shook his head, looking as if he was dismayed at how dense Seth was being. "Nerf, Seth. It means Nerf."

"Dean, I have company," Seth said, motioning to Payton.

"So? Let her play too, we've got enough weapons." Dean overrode Seth's objections easily. "C'mon, Seth, you've got to see this place, it's perfect."

Seth looked at Payton. "Have you ever played with a Nerf gun before?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I've seen them though. Preston has a Nerf basketball in his room, and I've played with that, but I've never played with Nerf guns before."

They didn't have all the time in the world, Seth knew that, but they had some and he had a feeling Payton would enjoy their games. "Would you like to play with us?"

Payton nodded, not saying anything, just agreeing with her eyes big and shining bright, as if she'd been offered a trip to Disney World. Seth looked at Dean. "All right, we just have to stop at the locker room we're using so I can get my Nerf gear."

"C'mon then, let's go!" Dean said, his voice eager. Nerf had started out as Seth's idea, from back when they were the Shield and did almost everything together, when it came to work. Too often they found themselves with small pockets of time, never more than three hours, usually closer to an hour, where they didn't have time to do anything but wait. For a show to start, an interview to begin, for a hospital to allow visitors, it didn't matter. The waiting could drive you crazy and Roman and Dean would often get bored and start arguing and eventually roughhousing. Seth had gotten sick of it and had bought each of them a Nerf Maverick and that's how it started. Soon they expanded their weapons to include others. But in truth, Dean had taken to the game more than any of them, even learning how to modify some of his weapons. Of course, Dean enjoyed shooting real guns too, but that wasn't always possible on the road either.

Less than ten minutes later, there were six of them were headed to the boiler room. Jimmy and Jey Uso had seen them leaving their locker room, weapons in hand, and asked to join in. They had all played together before, and since with Nerf, the motto often was, "Three is good, six is better," they were quickly allowed. Seth had given Payton his Maverick with the upgraded sonic bullets. It was his favorite Nerf weapon, but it was also the easiest to operate, and with the sonic ammo, it might even be the most fun. He had his Nerf N-Strike Elite Strongarm instead. Roman carried his personal favorite, his Longshot CS-6, Dean his Rayven CS-18, a gun that had once been confiscated by Triple H for a night, after Dean had shot him with it, but, Dean had made sure to get it back. The Uso's had identical Nerf N-Strike Elite Retaliators blasters. Payton also held a pair of dollar store protective goggles on her arm. Yes, they knew they should always wear protective eye gear, but they often forgot. Seth wasn't going to take a chance with Payton.

End of Part 3

Special thanks to:

Guest: I'm glad you like the story, I just hope you keep liking it and keep reading it. Thank you for your review.

Author's notes: Yes, the next chapter will contain a Nerf fight. :-D For those of you who have read my other stories, the first Nerf fight was Dean and Roman's daughter. The next was in Road Trip. For some reason, my readers like Nerf fights and I figure Dean can't resist when he finds a good place to play in. And, Seth figures Payton could use a little fun in her life.

So, next chapter? Nerf fight in a boiler room.

Thank you for all the feedback on this story, you folks are amazing. Thank you also for the favorites and follows. I'm not used to getting this many of those. Yes, again, reviews would be awesome and I hope to convince some of you followers/favoriters to leave a review, but following/favoring is nice too. It's a lot better than silence.

I just hope all of you continue to like the story.

Peace Out

Willow