Disclaimer Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Dean Ambrose, and various superstars 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 me, and the children of my own imagination. Any resemblance to any real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

The Girl Who Lives
Part Seven

Sometimes things lined up perfectly and the Fast Lane PPV was taking place in Memphis, where St. Jude's was located and as it happened, Preston was down there finishing up his latest treatment. Of course the Caldwells were invited to attend. The WWE was even planning on sending over a limo to pick the family up and take them to the event. When they were told of this, Dolph volunteered to ride along to get them, looking forward to seeing his buddy Preston again. It was quickly agreed that this would be a wonderful idea. The PR department would make sure the press knew about it, and it was likely to be all over the local news, how the big WWE Superstar rode to the hotel, just to see his friend, the brave little Preston, recovering from his latest round of chemo and to take him to the show. If it was a slow news day, this was likely to make the national news, too.

Seth was at the meeting when this was announced and part of him wanted to volunteer to take his rental car and pick Payton up by himself, but he knew this would not be greeted as a good idea. Roman and Dean knew he was in close contact with Payton, but he hadn't shared that news with anyone else. Yes, there were plenty of people that had seen Seth wandering around with her backstage when her family came to events, but he wasn't sure anyone, not even Roman and Dean knew how close he'd become to the little girl. But, he was hoping he would get to see her. Kayla was coming to this pay per view and he was hoping to introduce the two of them.

There was always a sort-of festival atmosphere when a PPV came to town. While never as big as the March Wrestlemania, there were still a lot of folks who bought tickets that covered both the PPV, the RAW that would happen Monday and the Smackdown and Main event happening on Tuesday. Various events would be set up in the arena that ran all three days, the WWE Store would be open almost around the clock and there would be various press sessions, meet and greets, etc. This was not the time for a Superstar to explore the town though, even if they had the time. The chances of recognition were much higher, with wrestling being on so many people's minds.

Seth arrived late Saturday night, having flown there after completing a house show. He'd been able to fly first class, along with several other members of the WWE, including Roman and Dean. They didn't sit together, generally you were expected to stay somewhat in character when you were flying from city to city on WWE business, but they sat across the isle from him. Dean charmed one of the flight attendants into giving him several bags of peanuts and threw peanuts at Seth from time to time. Seth tried to pretend he was focused on the book he was reading, pausing only to give Dean dirty looks, although in truth, he appreciated what Dean was doing, he was letting Seth know he still considered Seth his brother, he was still part of the "gang of three" even though they couldn't sit together. Dean was pretty clever sometimes. Anyone still buying into Kayfabe would think Dean was trying to annoy Seth because he hated him. Seth knew Dean was trying to annoy him because he cared. He just had to fight himself from throwing the peanuts back at Dean. Seth did not hold it past Dean to get in an all-out food fight and to be honest, he didn't trust himself not to join in and enjoy it. And that would not be good for business.

"Jesus," Randy said, as a peanut missed Seth and bounced off his head. "Remind me never to sit next to you, again."

Seth smiled. "That's the price of being on the same roster as Dean Ambrose." He looked at Randy, "I could tell you how to stop him, but you may not like it."

"Well, it's getting-" Randy stopped abruptly as another peanut bounced off his skull and then fell to Seth's open book. "Okay, how do I stop him?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

Randy took the peanut from Seth's open book and threw it at him. "Yeah, I want to know, this is getting really annoying."

"Switch seats with me," Seth suggested, catching the peanut and throwing it back at Randy, "And-"

Before he could finish, Randy interrupted, scoffing, "And put myself even closer to the line of fire?"

"If you will let me finish," Seth said, shaking his head. "Switch seats, then lean over and tell Dean you heard he has a picture of his son and a couple of his friends dressed like Shield for Halloween and you would like to see it."

"Really?" Randy's brows raised and he smiled. "That's all it will take?"

"Well, you'll have to see more than one picture," Seth admitted. "His phone is full of pictures of Neil doing thrilling things like eating cereal, doing his homework, and brushing his teeth. And if Dean thinks you're interested, he will show you every single one of them."

Randy pulled out his own phone. "Yeah? Well, he forgets that two can play at that game. I have some adorable pictures of my daughter, starting from her first birthday party."

Another peanut landed in Seth's hair. He shook his head, dislodging it and stood up. Quickly he and Randy exchanged seats. As he was settled in the window seat, opening his book again, he heard Randy going, "Wow, that's really cute. This is my daughter dressed like a cat for Halloween."

Part of Seth wanted to whip out his own cell phone and show them some of the pictures Payton had taken, but another part of him didn't. The pictures she sent them were between her and him and Payton wasn't even in them. But it surprised him how he almost felt like he had a right to join that group of three (because Roman would join in soon enough with his own pictures) when before Payton he would have done everything he could to avoid it.

When they arrived in Memphis, they all went directly to the hotel that all of them were staying in. Seth was hoping he would be able to go down to the hotel gym, pathetic at best, but slightly better than nothing, and maybe do some cardio, not for a real workout, but just to throw off the effects of being in a plane. But nope, instead they all had to shuffle down to a conference room where Stephanie, Hunter, and Vince gave them all the low down on how the weekend would go. That was when they learned that the Caldwells were in town and would be coming to Fast Lane and when it was arranged for Dolph to ride in the limo to pick them up for the PPV.

When the meeting ended, Seth headed for his room, thinking that maybe, just maybe, he could get a half an hour workout in and then get a few hours of sleep before he had to be up. He had to do something to relax. He fumbled for his key card and opened the door.

He hadn't had a chance to check out the room before the meeting, and when the door first opened he was surprised the air carried with it a faintly familiar scent that was a mixture of floral and spice. Familiar to him, he had a wash cloth that carried that scent, sealed in a zip-lock bag and stored in his luggage for times when he needed something more than a voice or a picture to carry him off to sleep. But it was not a common scent. There was only one person he knew of who wore that particular scent.

"Kayla?" he called out softly as he entered the room.

She was lying on the king sized bed, wearing something silky in a color that matched her eyes. Her long hair was down, and she smiled, sitting up. "Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed in an extremely good southern accent. "I do declare! How did such a virile, handsome, man get into mah hotel room, so late at night? And the night before I'm scheduled to join the convent! Whatever shall I do?" She fluttered her lashes, one of her hands going up to her forehead, the other to her breast as if she might swoon.

He grinned. He loved this side of Kayla, the playful, sexy side. Their role playing never extended beyond a little teasing, a bit of pre-foreplay so-to-speak, but it always made him smile. "What?" He said, as he dropped his bag, trying to make his voice sound lower, "why, what's a pretty little flower of the south doing, entering a convent?" He tried to make his voice sound low and rich, like one of those smooth southern gentlemen you saw in those old movies. Instead it came out sounding a bit like Foghorn Leghorn from the old Warner Brother cartoons.

She fluttered her lashes again as he came over to the bed. "Why, mah Daddy says I have to join, sir! He found me lettin' the Beauford boy kiss me behind the house, and now he's convinced I have lust in mah heart! And everyone knows the only cure for that is to get me to a nunnery!"

She had moved over in the bed, giving him plenty of room. He lowered himself next to her, restraining himself from grabbing her like a man dying of thirst might grab at a glass of water. It had been weeks, no months, since he'd seen her and oh, he missed her. "Well, I might have a better solution," he said.

"Oh? Well what is that?" When he opened his mouth to speak, she put her finger on his lips. "Sir, I don't want you to tell me, I want you to show me."

Okay, it wasn't a real work out, but it had to count for cardio. It was a whole lot more fun and it certainly took the edge off his mind and body and put him in a much more relaxed state. "Still want to join that convent?" he asked, when the love making was over and they were just lying together in a sweaty tangle of arms and legs, the room now smelling like floral, spice, Irish Springs soap, and the heady smell of sex, that was somehow comforting if you were one of the participants that created it, and off putting if you weren't.

Kayla rolled on her side so she was facing him, resting her head on her hand and holding herself upright with her elbow. "Only if you're willing to become a priest." She was no longer speaking in a southern accent.

"Sorry, babe, my calling is wrestling." He turned his head so he could look at her, and smiled. He had dropped the quasi-southern, Foghorn Leghorn accent.

"Well then, screw that, I'm sticking with you." She leaned over, taking a quick nip at his earlobe, that made him shiver. She knew his weaknesses.

"Careful," he warned her. "Unless you want to stay up all night."

"I'd love for us to screw our brains out all night long," she said, moving a little closer so she was snuggling up against him. "But I also know you have to be on your game tomorrow, so you need to get some sleep."

He nodded, yawning, then remembered that he had forgotten to text Payton. He had been unable to leave a good night message, so he wanted to be sure he left a good morning on. "I know this sounds mean, but I need to get my phone," he said, turning away from her and leaning over to snag the pants he'd been wearing, the pants that were now puddled on the floor having been hastily discarded.

"Oh?" Kayla sat up, drawing her knees up to her chest, her hair spilling over her shoulders, onto her kneecaps and down her lower legs. "We just finish making love and you need to check in with your other girlfriend?"

He lay down next to her, stuffing a pillow against the headboard to prop himself up. "No, I need to text Payton and wish her good morning." He looked at Kayla. "We do that."

"Ah, so you are contacting your other girlfriend," she teased.

He shook his head as he pulled up the text messaging and sent off the simple message. "Don't joke like that!" he said, grinning to take the sting out of his words, but still feeling serious about it. "I worry enough about what happens if she gets caught with that phone I gave her."

Kayla knew about the phone, of course, he didn't keep secrets from her. "Don't be so paranoid," she said. "Anyone who knows you will know you would never do anything inappropriate with a child."

He sighed. "But the problem is, I'm a celebrity and people are always looking for celebrities to screw up. Also, this whole... the phone is a secret, well, it just looks wrong."

"Have you said or done anything even remotely shameful or wrong in any communication you've had with her?" Kayla asked. She was playful, but she also had a practical side to her.

"No," he said, then remembered that he told Payton he loved her the other day. "Well, I did say I love you," he admitted. "She was upset about Preston's tests results and I was getting ready to go on. I told her I'd text her later and ended my text with, 'love you, Pay.' When I checked, she had texted back that she loved me too, and called me Uncle. Just Uncle."

"I wouldn't worry about that," Kayla said. "It's not like you were texting back and forth 'what RU wearing' or anything." She made the "what RU wearing" sound lecherous. "You were comforting her and love is very comforting. Especially to her."

"Yeah, and I'd be fine with it, but with the phone being this big secret-" he paused and spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "I'm just worried."

"Well, don't," Kayla said. "There's nothing you two have done to be ashamed of, you like her like a niece, right?"

"A little more," Seth found himself admitting, putting the phone on the nightstand. "This is going to sound crazy, Kayla, but part of me wished I could adopt her, you know? I mean, her folks aren't taking care of her, and she needs a family, a family that doesn't revolve around her sick brother."

Kayla nodded, not saying anything, knowing Seth wasn't finished and wanting merely to encourage him.

"But, I know it's crazy. Even if her family gave her up, they wouldn't want some single guy adopting her, especially one that was on the road all the time." He sighed. "I sound weird, don't I?"

Kayla laughed, getting up from her side of the bed and walking over to Seth's side, where she picked up his dress slacks and started folding them neatly, going for a hanger to hang them up properly. "No, you don't sound weird. You sound like you're taken by this little girl. And I can't wait to meet her."

"I can't wait for her to meet you either," He said. "I think you're going to like her. She's smart and she's sweet, too. I've met so many kids in this job and most of them, at least when I meet them, are so hyped up to meet us. She's so low key in a lot of ways." He frowned suddenly. "You don't have to do that," he said, indicating her hanging up his pants. She knew he liked things kept neat and orderly, and often teased him that it was because his life on the road was so chaotic that he always went the other way when he could and was sometimes borderline anal about keeping things neat and tidy when he could. Of course, he teased her, because she didn't tolerate disorder very well herself and she didn't have the excuse of a chaotic life on the road, although he wished she did.

"I know I don't have to," she said. "But I was getting up to get something to drink and I figured I might as well." She gave him a rather cheeky grin. "Besides, you look so comfortable and sexy in bed, I don't want to disturb you."

"Sexy, huh?" he curled his arms, trying to strike a typical muscleman pose, not easy when you were laying on your back.

"Ooooh!" Kayla hung the hanger onto the coat rack and then brought her hands up to cup her face. "Naked Seth Rollins is in my bed! O. M. G, Best Day Ever!" She was now imitating a bubbly late teens to early twenties girl, perfectly. She really was good at this type of thing. She pulled two cans of fruit juice out of the mini bar and came over to the bed, jumping on the bed next to him. "Oh God, Mr. Rollins, can I touch your willy? Please?" She fluttered her lashes. "I've never seen one as magnificent as yours! Even my boyfriend's can't compare!"

"I don't know," he said, taking the offered can of pineapple juice and opening it. "I"m very particular about who I let touch my willy."

"Can I at least take a picture of it?" she continued, opening her own can, then she stopped and frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"Speaking of pictures of your wang..." she hesitated, taking a sip of pineapple juice. "I erased those pictures I had of you on my phone."

"Oh?" He remembered when she took those pictures. She had just gotten a new phone and was playing with it. One thing lead to another and before they knew it, both of them had an abundance of pictures of each other naked on their phones.

She nodded. "I-I lost my phone a couple weeks ago," she admitted. "It scared the hell out of me. As it turned out, I'd left it at Lacy's house, so I got it back, no harm done."

"Okay?" he took a sip of his own drink, waiting for her to continue.

"But it got me to thinking," she said, biting her lower lip. "Lacy and I had run errands and done some shopping all morning. When I realized my phone was missing, she had gone to the gym. I was driving to every place we'd gone to trying to find the phone and until she got home from the gym I was terrified."

"Yeah, but it's okay," he said, reaching over and rubbing her back. "You didn't lose it, you just misplaced it."

"Yes, but I could have lost it," she said, putting the can on the nightstand and laying down, facing him. "I could have left it at the coffee shop, or on the counter of one of the stores we went to, I could have left it anywhere. And all I could think of was if someone found it. Even though I have my laptop hooked up so I can erase it from there, what if someone found it before I realized it was lost? I mean, I didn't even dump it this time and I probably should have. I looked for it first. If someone found it... well, what if they went on facebook or twitter? You've used my phone to update your twitter account, so the password is on it. What if someone found it and started updating your twitter with naked pictures of you?"

He nodded, slowly, seeing her point. "Yeah, that was probably the best thing to do."

"I was also thinking of Payton, too. Imagine how that would look if suddenly naked pictures of you appeared on the net, then she got caught with the phone."

Seth groaned, it was something he didn't even want to imagine. "That would be bad. I mean, I feel horrible enough about the phone itself. Imagine if they found out the guy who gave her the phone had naked pictures of him floating around."

Kayla nodded. "So, I'm also going to recommend you get rid of your pictures of me.. unclothed too," she said.

He nodded, reaching for his phone again, then paused. "I'm still worried about Payton and that phone," he admitted.

"Don't be," Kayla said, her voice firm and confident.

"Oh?" he looked at her, phone in his hand. "Why not? Roman and Dean understand my concern."

"Yeah, but I think I might know what to do about that phone," she said, her eyes taking on a far away look that told him her brain was working on the issue even as they spoke.

"Oh? What's your thought?" He flicked through his phone and found the pictures and with sadness, deleted them. Thank goodness he hadn't been stupid enough to store them in cyberspace. He was able to fight the temptation to look at them one last time only because he had the real thing lying in bed next to him.

"I need some time to think about it," she admitted. "But don't worry, I'll probably have it worked out in the morning." Seeing he was done with his phone, she reached over, grabbed it and put it on the nightstand. "In the meantime, we need to get some sleep or you'll be exhausted tomorrow. And I don't want that."

"I'm glad you're here," he admitted, snuggling up to her as she turned out the bedside light. "I sleep better when you're with me."

"I do too," she said.

Both of them were asleep in minutes.

End of Part Seven

Special Thanks To:

Kina: Aw, thank you, I'm glad you liked Chapter Six.

Holly: I agree with you and I think most people would. However, there are people who would find this whole, "Secret phone" thing a bit odd. The reasons why they're keeping it a secret are innocent, but a lot of people might not think so. Thank you so much for your reveiw!

Emilee: Well, Roman has been a dad a lot longer than Dean. Sure, Neil is older, but Dean hasn't known about him since birth. Now, I'm not saying Roman is right or Dean is right... the truth, as it usually does, likely lies in the middle somewhere. I do feel Preston is pretty spoiled and that the Caldwells need to pay closer attention to their daughter. But, thank you so much for your review, I really do appreciate it!

Guest: Define "long." Will this story be longer than others I've written? Yes. It stands the chance of being the longest story I have on this site. However, will it be a 25+ chapter saga? At this point, no, I don't see that happening. I will do my best to update regularly, but as I have mentioned, it is the busy season at work and my writing time could be limited. And I don't know how to define "regularly." I normally have a story all plotted and roughed out before I start posting, but in this case I don't. I will do my best to update at least once a week, but it might take longer sometimes, depending on how busy I am at my job.

Author's Notes: I know, Payton isn't in this one, but she'll be in the next chapter, I promise. I wanted to get Kayla more involved in the story, because she's got an important part to play. Also, she's the outside perspective Seth and Payton need to help them see what needs to be done with the phone.

Yes, I sort of skirted and avoided the issue of Naked Seth Rollins and that whole mess. I mentioned the pictures, but I resolved the issue before it became one. Other than that? I'm just letting it go. The whole issue with Colby Lopez and his fiance has nothing to do with my fictional story about fictional Seth Rollins. In my fiction land, Seth and Kayla are still happy together.

Just some FYI, it's the busy season at work, so if updates slow down, rest assured the story isn't forgotten, it's just been pushed down the priority list. I will do my best to find time to write and update.

In the meantime... wow, you guys are amazing! You are fantastic, you are wonderful, and amazing. Did I say amazing? 113 reviews, 35 favs and 51 Follows. I wish I had the proper words to thank you, but I don't. All I can do is tell you again how amazing you all are and how much I appreciate this. And, tell you to keep them coming. Seriously, with this being the busy season at work, the motivation to write sometimes sinks as I'm trying to organize how I'll get things done. When I see the reviews, the favs, the follows, suddenly finding that time to write goes way up on the priority list because I feel like people really care that this story gets written. So, yeah, keep the reviews coming, the encouragement is important.

And, if you want to complain? I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am a big girl. I don't tolerate flames very well, but if you have a legitimate complaint, feel free to tell me. I'm not saying I'll agree with you, but I will say that as long as you give me a way to communicate with you, I will discuss it with you. If you would rather tell me about it privately, PM me. I promise you that if you PM me in private, I will not mention your name. I may mention some of the things you say in author's notes to get other opinions, but I will not mention you by name/handle.

Thank you again for your amazing response to this story.

Until next chapter...

Peace Out

Willow