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 Nine

Fast lane and the following couple of days went well that year and Seth was pleased. The PPV itself went off without a hitch, unusual in itself, usually at least one thing went wrong and tensions were high, but this time everything ran smoothly. Everyone in the event showed up on time and was actually on their game, which Seth was grateful for. Sometimes the party atmosphere of the PPV lead wrestlers to do more partying than they should, resulting in sloppy, borderline dangerous wrestling, not just for their opponents but for themselves too. Seth had done a lot of things as a wrestler but the worst had to be carrying a wrestler who was only wrestling with half a brain because the other half was still at the bar from the night before. But this time, it was smooth sailing. The rest of the time there went well too. The Raw show, then Main Event and the Smackdown filming.

One of the best things though, was that the Caldwells didn't seem to mind that Payton spent most of her time with Kayla and Seth, at least when Seth wasn't working. Even when he was performing, Kayla was sitting with Jessica, Cinnamon, Neil, and Leah, close to where the Caldwells and the Make-a-Wish children were sitting. Soon enough Payton was over to be with Kayla and that group as well, not surprising considering that the three kids had started forming a friendship.

It wasn't just the shows though, Payton ended up spending almost all her waking hours with Kayla and Seth and all three of them loved it. Monday was fairly busy for Seth, he had some media work to do along with practically everyone else on the roster. Jessica and Cinnamon were still there along with Neil and Lynn. Since the children were missing school for this, the mothers were insistent the kids do something educational, they decided to take the kids to Centennial Park to see the Parthenon. Kayla and Payton went along with them. Seth was a little sorry he couldn't tag along, the idea of a replica of ancient Greece in Nashville was interesting and he would have liked to have seen it.

Tuesday, things were a little easier. The promotion work was mostly done, that night would be the last show. The excitement and festival atmosphere of the Fastlane PPV was over so Seth, Roman, and Dean had the morning off and were even given permission to show up for late call. The group, including Payton, decided to go to the Adventure Science Center. Neil tried to claim the place was for babies, but once they got there, he soon forgot his claims and fell in love with it, constantly coming over to his folks going, "Mom, Dad, you've got to see this!" Dean was as charmed by the place as Neil was, and the two of them were soon trying to see and do everything in the short amount of time they had.

Payton and Leah were a bit more sedate, walking together, checking things out more carefully. Even if it was something neither of them were interested in, they gave it a chance at least.

"They've become fast friends," Jessica remarked as she watched them. The two girls were ahead of the adults, holding hands as young girls often did. Their conversation was animated as they looked around and seemed to have an opinion on everything.

"I know," Seth said, watching Payton. "She seems like a different little girl, doesn't she?"

"Different from what?" Cinnamon asked.

"How she usually acts," Seth said.

"Really?" Although Cinnamon said it, both she and Jessica looked puzzled. "How is she different?"

"Usually she's very quiet," Seth said.

Again, they both looked at him as if they weren't sure what he was talking about, and that's when Seth realized that away from the pressures of a dying brother and parents that seemed to want her to be the beloved old dog that stayed out of everyone's way, Payton was blooming, Payton was becoming a normal child.

This isn't right, he told himself. She's not shy, she's not introverted, that is learned behavior. It's a survival technique she's learned to exist in her family and it's wrong. I don't know how long she's had to do this, but the longer it continues, the more likely she is to become that person, that introverted little girl who has to stay out of everyone's way.

There was a Subway sandwich shop in the place where they went for lunch. As Kayla and Seth helped guide Payton through the various choices for topping, the girl waiting on them smiled. "It's easy to tell she's your daughter," she remarked as she loaded all three subs with extra pickles as the three of them had requested. "She's got the same eyes and likes the same things."

The three of them exchanged looks, Payton biting her lip. Seth finally smiled at the sandwich girl. "Thank you," he said. Payton stopped biting her lip and grinned at him. What has this little girl done to me? he thought. I'm going from thinking I wasn't ready to be a father to wishing I was her Dad.

Unfortunately, when Main Event and the Smackdown taping ended, that signaled the end of the time with both Payton and Kayla and as he hugged both of them goodbye, Seth could feel the prickling behind his eyes that indicated tears. Not that he would shed them, but they were there too, a reminder that even though he worked his ass off, these last few days had been some of the best of his life. He had been able to spend most of them with two of the people on this planet that meant the most to him.

And he wasn't sure which one he would miss more.

The Road to Wrestlemania was both exciting and exhausting, and Seth felt the brunt of it. There was an air of excitement in the crowd that was exhilarating, but it meant that the regular schedule, hard enough all the time, was ramped up. Randy Orton told him once, right after he started with the WWE, that Wrestlemania season was like regular season, but turned up to eleven. At the time, Seth had laughed, appreciating the This is Spinal Tap joke, but now he appreciated it for the truth of it. All the superstars learned to thrive on very little sleep, now they had to learn to not only thrive, but flourish on even less. The six weeks between Fastlane and Wrestlemania, you had to be on your game, the audience watched you extra closely, ready to rush to Facebook or Twitter if they even could imagine a slip in performance, ready to critique you and tell the world how bad you sucked, how you would ruin Wrestlemania this year.

Seth was grateful to not be one of the good guys. For some reason, the good guys took more heat from the more "dedicated" fans on the internet. Bad guys could get away with anything, but good guys? They just wanted to hate them.

He still tried his best to keep in touch with Kayla and Payton. Unless he just could not keep his eyes open, he still called Kayla every night. He always managed to text Payton her good morning message. She went to bed at a more reasonable hour, and she would often text him to tell him good night first. She still sent her picture every day, too. He tried to send one back. He thanked fate that the internet had been invented along with such things as cell phones, email, and texting, because the only way he could keep in touch was those odd bits of time waiting for interviews or traveling from one place to another. Air travel internet was expensive and horrible, but he found himself buying it when he could, just in hopes he could send a few messages to "his girls" or send a couple of emails.

Time off was out of the question. Seth was expected to play a prominent on both Smackdown and Raw, and he was expected to do house shows too. That was okay though, he knew the drill and he figured the only way he would not be wrestling every night was if he was so badly injured that he just couldn't stand.

Then, the phone call came.

It came on Tuesday night, two weeks before Wrestlemania. Main event was over, Smackdown filming was over, Seth's job for the night was done. All he wanted was to get through the backstage stuff as fast as he possibly could so he could go back to the hotel. He had a house show the next night, but if he could get some sleep, he could get up early and drive to the next show, which was in the next state. He would be sharing the vehicle with Dean and Roman, which meant that the three of them could take turns driving and he could maybe get some more sleep. With any luck, they would get to the next venue in time for him to have a few hours at the gym. He had been neglecting his workouts as badly as his sleep and he was getting irritated at that.

He was sharing a locker room with Roman and Dean again, and the two of them were playing, "Look at my kid," a game that Seth found himself joining in with now, not with pictures of Payton, she still didn't send them, but he did share some of her photographs. But he was trying to get changed so he'd be ready for when the backstage people would come. Then, his phone rang.

It was on the top shelf of his locker, he had forgotten to turn it of, and being in his locker, he hadn't worried about it. He grabbed it and looked at the caller ID.

It was Payton. It was late at night, almost midnight, she never called or texted him after ten o'clock, never. He didn't hesitate, he answered it. "Pay?"

"U-u-uncle S-s-s-seth?"

He thought at first she was crying, but then he realized that maybe she was, but there was more to her voice. It was edged terror, not tears. "Payton?"

"U-uncle S-seth," she repeated, then spoke so rapidly he almost didn't understand her. "They'regonethey'regonethey'regone. TheyleftwithPrestonandI'mhereallaloneandI'msoscared!"

"Payton, what are you saying?" He was instantly alert. "Where are your parents?"

Roman and Dean had put there phones down and were looking at him.

"They left!" Payton wailed. "They left, they forgot me, I'm alone, and I'm scared!"

"Who left?" Seth asked, even though he was pretty sure he knew.

"Mom and Dad!" Payton wailed, "Pres-Pres-Preston got bad!" she wailed, speaking a little slower, but higher. "He got sick an' they rushed him to the hospital an' when I came out to go with them, they were gone. Uncle Seth, I'm alone here! I'm alone and I'm scared!"

Seth wanted to choke the Caldwells. He wanted to grab both of them by their necks and squeeze until the air ran out of their lungs and they were begging for mercy, crying as hysterically as their daughter was. But that wouldn't solve the problem. "Payton, it's okay," he said, even though it was anything but okay, "Calm down, baby, you're not alone, I'm here."
Roman and Dean were paying full attention to him now, staring at him, trying to make sense of what was being said. Both to confirm the situation and to get them up to speed, he summed up his suspicions. "Are you saying your parents took Preston to the hospital and didn't take you along?"

Both Dean and Roman looked horrified. They exchanged looks between each other then stared back at him.

"Yes!" Payton wailed. "I'm alone and it's night and I'm scared! And I don't know what to do!"

Of course you don't, Seth thought, but didn't say. Payton was tough, Payton was resourceful. Had this been during the day, she likely would have been fine, but it was night time, and every kid knew that night time was when the beasts came out, the nightmares roamed free and little girls were vulnerable. "Do you know any of your neighbors?"

"No!" Payton wailed. "We haven't lived here long enough. Uncle Seth, what do I do?"

As there was in some stadiums locker rooms, even in this small room, there was a whiteboard and markers. Roman went over and wrote on the whiteboard in huge letters:

Grandparents?

"Payton, are your grandparents close?" Seth asked her.

"They live close, but they're in Florida, they won't be back for a few weeks!" Payton said, and the tears started again and the sniffles and Seth was angry and heartbroken at the same time.

Dean now wrote on the whiteboard:

KAYLA!

Seth nodded. Dean held up his phone and Seth walked over to the whiteboard and wrote down the home number and Kayla's cellphone number, all while assuring Payton that everything was going to be fine, no more than fine, it would be great. He would stay right with her. "Remember your Uncle Dean?" Seth asked, "Dean Ambrose? He's going to call Aunt Kayla. She lives in Davenport, she lives with me." He realized he was half babbling, trying to say something, anything to assure Payton that things were being done.

Roman now wrote:

ADDRESS?

"Pay? I need your address, okay? Dean is calling your Aunt Kayla right now, to tell her to come and stay with you until your folks get there, but she'll need to know where you live. Do you trust me enough to give me your address?"

Through sobs, she gave out their address. Seth repeated it out loud, both to confirm what she said and so Roman could write it down on the whiteboard for Dean. Dean was calling Kayla.

"They hate me!" Payton sobbed, "They hate me and that's why they left me."

There it was, all out in the open. Seth never probed Payton to find out how she thought her parents felt about her. Seth never felt comfortable with that. He knew something was very wrong with the family, but he wasn't sure if Payton knew how unfairly she was treated, or if she just thought this was normal. "They don't hate you," he said, and he was being honest. He didn't think they hated their daughter, he believed Myron and Andrea barely knew she existed. "They were probably so worried about Preston that they just forgot." He winced as he said the words, knowing that they were not comforting at all. What parent forgets about their kid? I don't care if your genitals are on fire, you remember your kid!

He heard Dean talking to Kayla, even as he was babbling assurances to Payton that things were fine. "Hey, Kayla, I'm sorry if I woke you, but we have a little emergency here." Seth admired Dean at that moment, he was so calm and collect. "I don't know the full details, but I guess Payton's folks ran off to the hospital with Preston and left her at home alone."

"You don't understand!" Payton was crying in his ear. "Preston is a boy an' Daddy wanted a boy, but he's the one that got sick, not me! I'm supposed to be the sick one! I'm the one that's supposed to be dying, not Preston! He's the son!"

Seth was pretty sure Payton hadn't heard the words she was saying from her parents, but somehow in their actions, that the impression she had gotten. And his hatred for them became even stronger. "Pay, that's not true."

"Yes it is!" she stubbornly insisted.

"Honey, it's okay," He said, not wanting to argue with her. "Dean is on the phone with Aunt Kayla right now." He could hear Dean giving Kayla the address, slowly and carefully. When he saw Seth looking at him, Dean gave a thumbs up. Roman, meanwhile, had left the locker room, looking determined, and Seth had the feeling he was going to tell the Powers That Be, that Seth would not be out for the after show, backstage meet and greet, at least not for awhile, because he had to stay on the phone with a little girl who was home all alone late at night, because her parents forgot about her. "Aunt Kayla is going to come," he assured Payton. "She's on her way."

"Don't hang up!" Payton wailed. "Please, Uncle Seth, don't hang up!"

"I won't," he assured her. "I will stay on the phone with you until either your folks come back or Kayla shows up, okay? I won't leave you alone, I'm right here in voice, if not in person."

"I don't mind day, but I don't want to be alone at night!" Payton wailed, as if newly reminded of her situation. "They left me at night!"

"I know, and that was wrong of them," Seth said, not giving a damn anymore about stepping on the Caldwell's toes. "They should not have done that, it was wrong and it was bad, but we're fixing it, okay?"

It seemed like he was on the phone for hours with Payton, but in truth it was only a little bit over one hour before the doorbell rang. He could hear it through the phone. "That's probably Kayla," he said.

"Should I answer it?"

"Do you have a peephole?"

"Yes, but I can't..."

Payton had obviously moved closer to the door while they talked and even Seth could hear the muffled voice from behind the door. "Payton!" He could just make out the voice and it sounded female. She must live in an apartment building where the walls are made of tissue paper and the doors are cheap, he thought. But Payton must have recognized Kayla's voice because he heard the sound of latches being removed and the door opening. Then things were muffled for awhile, and he was betting Kayla had gathered Payton, phone and all, in her arms. He could hear her making comforting noises like, "There, there, it's okay," After a bit, someone came back on the line, and it was Kayla.

"Hey lover," she said, her voice bright, no doubt to assure Payton all was fine. "I'm here."

"Oh, thank God!" exploded from his mouth, and he realized for the first time since he had answered the phone, that some weight had fallen on him the moment he knew the situation, so fast that he didn't even realize it was there. But it was okay, because now the weight was gone and he could breath easily again.

"I think I'm going to pack up a few things and take Payton to our house," Kayla continued, her voice still bright and sunny as if it were a beautiful Sunday afternoon and she was suggesting a picnic in the park. "We're fine and I'll call you as soon as we're situated."

"What about her parents?" He blurted out before she had finished.

"If they come home before we leave, I'll talk to them." Seth could hear sniffling in the background, telling him Kayla was probably still hugging Payton, that Payton was clinging to her. "If not, I'll leave them a nice little note telling them how to get in touch with me."

"Okay," he said. He didn't want to hang up, he didn't want to let go of this lifeline until everything was figured out, even though he knew Kayla would sort it out and sort it out properly. "Yeah, call me. I'm going to see if I can get a couple days off."

Dean was still in the room, keeping track of what was going on. When Seth mentioned taking time off, he gave him the thumbs up and nodded.

"It's the road to Wrestlemania," Kayla reminded him.

"I don't care," Seth said, and he meant it. "I was willing to overlook the Caldwell's shitty parenting but this is the final straw. Something has to be done."

"I agree," Kayla said, and her voice was still bright and cheerful and Seth knew it was an act, knew she was as angry as he was. "But love, you have things to do and I have to help Payton gather up some things. I will keep you in the loop and call you as soon as we know where she'll be the next few days. I'm betting she'll be with me."

"Thank you," Seth said, grateful for her, so damned grateful he had a fiancee who knew how to grab all the loose threads in people's lives and twine them together to make them strong again. "Let me talk to Pay, just for a second, okay?"

The phone was handed back to Payton, who said, "Hello?" in a voice still full of tears, but they sounded like the tail end of the tears, like crisis was over and while things weren't settled, at least Payton knew everything would work out one way or another.

"Hey, Payton," he said. "Are you going to be okay? Kayla's taking you to our house, is that all right with you?"

"Yeah," she said softly. "I-I just don't want to be alone."

"I know that, honey. And you won't be." Seth took a deep breath. "I'm going to do my best to see if I can come see you for a bit, okay? So, you hang in there and hopefully, we'll be able to talk face to face, does that sound good?"

"Yes," she said, sniffling again, but he could almost hear the beginning of a smile in her voice. "Thank you, Uncle Seth... I love you."

"I love you too, baby. Don't ever forget it, either."

End of Part Nine

Special Thanks to:

Zipper: I appreciate the cheese, but the next time can it be something besides American cheese? I would much prefer a nice, extra sharp cheddar or perhaps a nice, buttery, Swiss cheese. Unlike Baby, the holes don't make me nervous. (And if you're going to use one of Coop's titles for your alibi, you better know what I meant by the holes in Swiss cheese making Baby nervous!) But, I'm glad the story is better than you thought it would be and I hope you keep thinking that, too.

Holly: I don't feel it's a spoiler to tell you that odds are very good Payton won't have to give up the phone to Preston. Payton won't use it around Preston, and if Preston doesn't see it, he won't want it. To be honest, the Caldwells are neglectful enough when it comes to Payton that they probably forgot about the phone. The important thing now is that if her parents catch Payton with the phone, she can say, "Remember? Kalya gave it to me, you said it was okay for me to have it, as long as I didn't let Preston see it."

And you called it on Kayla. I figure she's good with most kids and if her fiance says Payton is the best, then she thinks Payton is the best too. She's got a very strong maternal instinct. And now that you've read this chapter, you see that whether the Caldwells allow it or not, Payton will be staying with Kayla, at least for a night.

Emilee: Glad to hear you don't mind a little slushy. And, I'm glad you like Kayla. The more I write about her, the more I'm starting to like her, too. She's a surprisingly strong voice in my head now, so, expect to hear more from her in the future, not just in this story.

I confess that the whole comparison Seth made with Payton and a good old dog that stays out of everyone's way, made me a little sad, too.

Author's Notes: I am, and always will be astounded at the amount of reviews, favorites, and follows this story is getting. And it seems like I get a few more favors and follows with every chapter I write, which is so amazing and flattering. Again, keep them coming, because as I've said, it is the busy season at work and oh, there are times when I'm tempted to blow off my writing time in favor of something else (like laundry, or scrubbing out the bath tub, or any of those fun things) but the thought that people are enjoying this story so much makes me decide that yeah, I can wear that T-shirt one more time or, well, who needs baths? If I'm only using the tub to shower, does it really have to be sterilized?

This was a rough chapter. Obviously, I didn't enjoy putting Payton through the stress. But, that's what my brain told me would happen, that the day would come where the Caldwells actually did forget their own daughter.

There might be some of you who think that Payton should have been able to handle being left behind better, seeing that she is pretty much ignored. And, as Seth thought, odds are good that had this been daylight, she would have been upset, but fine. But it is night time and even though Preston is a pain, he's her brother and he's very sick. All of that is going to make it a lot harder for her to cope. And, there is a huge difference between being ignored and being alone. Myron and Andrea may neglect her, but they're usually at least a physical presence in her life.

And I think we should hand it to Seth, he knew Payton needed a way to keep in touch with the outside world and he was proven right.

Until next time
Peace Out

Willow.