Disclaimer Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler, 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 Eleven

Seth wasn't sure what to expect when he got to his house, so he was prepared for just about anything when Dolph dropped him off. The garage doors were shut, but he looked in the windows quickly and saw Kayla's car, so he knew she was home. He knew she was awake, from his earlier call to tell him he was on his way.

"Hey," he called out softly as he came in the door. He knew Kayla was awake, but he wasn't sure about Payton. She just had a difficult night, she might be sleeping in.

"Hey!" Kayla's voice came from the kitchen. "You're just in time for breakfast!"

He put down his duffel bag and his small suit case and walked into the kitchen. He was barely through the doorway when Payton, who must have been heading out to the living room to meet him, flung herself into his arms. "Uncle Seth!" she cried out, and buried her face in his shirt.

"Pay!" He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly. He noted, with a mixture of amusement and pleasure that she was wearing her Seth Rollin's T-shirt. "How are you?"

"Good," she said, her voice muffled because he head was still buried in his shirt.

For a few moments, they just stood there, arms around each other. He rubbed his hand up and down her back, comforting her, especially when he realized that her thin, bony shoulders were moving and she was trembling. He quickly looked at Kayla, who was by the counter, pouring batter into the waffle iron and closing the lid. She was staying right where she was, not just because she was manning the waffle iron, but because she wanted to give Payton the chance to greet Seth first. She did smile at him warmly though, letting him know she was glad to see him.

Seth wasn't sure if eight was considered too big to lift up or not, so instead, he untangled himself from Payton and knelt down in front of her. "Pay, are you okay?" She nodded, but her eyes were shinning with tears. He smiled. "Your words say yes, but your eyes say no. What's wrong, baby?"

She sniffled hard and wiped her arm across her eyes. "I-I-I-" she stuttered, then stopped and took a deep breath. "Everything is wrong, and everything is right," she finally half sobbed.

He was close enough to the kitchen table, that Seth easily reached and grabbed the napkin from one of the place settings. "Okay, honey, what's wrong? Let's start with that?"

"Pres is sick," she said, sniffling. "Pres is at the hospital an' my parents forgot me an' I had to call you an' I've been nothing but a bother!"

Seth's heart went out to her, and he wanted to wrap his arms around her and pull her close again, but he felt a more practical approach was better. "Uh-uh," he said, shaking his head. "You're wrong."

"Huh?" She looked at him, puzzled, not expecting him to argue with her.

"Payton, who am I?"

She frowned then smiled. "Uncle Seth."

"Right!" Seth took the napkin and gently wiped under the girl's eyes. "And who's that?" he asked, pointing to Kayla.

"Aunt Kayla."

"Right," Seth nodded. "And if we're your aunt and uncle that makes us, what, Payton?"

She frowned, the look on her face saying she didn't appreciate the quiz, then she smiled as the answer dawned on her. "Family," she said. "You're family."

"Yep, that's right," Seth said. "Not by blood, but we choose to be family. Just like Roman, Dean, and I. Yeah, on TV the Shield broke up, but when we started out, the three of us made a promise to always be brothers outside of the ring. And we are. And you know what, Pay? Sometimes chosen family is the best. Sometimes chosen family is there for you, when your blood family can't be. And you know what else is great about chosen family?"

"What?" She was studying him intently, listening to every word.

"Chosen family never wants to see you hurting. It doesn't matter what you ask for from people who you've chosen to be family and they have chosen to be your family, because your safety and well being is the most important thing to them. So, you can't be a bother to your chosen family, Payton. We love you, and if you need us, we'll always try to be there for you. So, no, you're not a bother." He brought the napkin up and wiped her eyes again, where fresh tears had gathered. "So, on that, don't worry. You're not a bother. In fact, I'm glad you're here, and I'm hoping it will work out that you can stay here for awhile. I have almost five days off, Payton, and I'm hoping that you, me, and Kayla will get to do things together, just like we did in Nashville."

"I liked that," Payton admitted shyly. "I like Leah and Neil, but I liked being with you and Kayla the most." Her smile suddenly changed into a frown. "But I have to go to the hospital," she said. "I have to see Preston."

"I know you do," Seth said, betting that when Preston was in the hospital, she was expected to stay there almost 24/7, just like her parents. "And we'll visit every day. But Preston needs his rest too, and the doctors will need to see him and your parents will be there. We don't have to be with him all the time."

"We don't?" she looked at him as if she didn't quite believe the words coming out of his mouth.

"Nope, we don't," Seth said, firmly. "Unless, of course, you want to."

She bit her lower lip. "Am I a bad sister if I don't want to stay there all the time?" she finally said, her voice almost a whisper.

"No, you're not a bad sister," Seth said, and this time he hugged her. "Everyone needs a break sometimes. And you've always been there for him and you'll be there for him now, too. But maybe, if you do take breaks, sometimes it will be easier when you are there."

When they drew apart, her eyes were dry and Seth was glad for that. "Now," he said. "What's the good part?"

She smiled. "That I'm here," she said, and he saw that sparkle coming to her eyes. "And Aunt Kayla is making waffles."

"Yeah, that is a pretty good part," Seth agreed. "No one makes waffles as good as your Aunt Kayla."

"And if you two are ready to eat, I'm ready to serve them," Kayla commented, coming over to the table and putting three plates on the table, each containing a fruit covered waffle.

Seth noted that there had been a place already set for him, and was pleased. When Payton went to sit down, Seth took the opportunity to give his fiancee a hug and kiss that she returned enthusiastically. "Five whole days with you," she remarked. "This is like my birthday, Christmas, and Easter all rolled up into one."

"For me too," Seth said, as he sat down. "Five days with two of my favorite people in the world."

Payton looked at him, and Seth had the feeling she was studying him to see if he was joking. When she saw he was serious, her lips curved into a grin.

When she said her prayers, as she always did before eating, Seth noted with interest, that while she asked God to cure her brother, she also thanked him for putting "Uncle Seth and Aunt Kayla" into her life. He and Kayla exchanged looks before Payton opened her eyes. Payton had never forgotten to pray before any meal, but this was the first time she broke the usual script of only talking about Preston.

When breakfast was finished, Kayla said they should go to the hospital. She suggested Seth stay home and get some sleep, but he shook his head. "I'm fine. I had coffee on the plane and there's that decent coffee shop in the lobby of the hospital, I can get a recharge.

Payton was in the bathroom, brushing her teeth, so Kayla felt free to talk. "Preston doesn't like you, remember?"

"Yep," Seth said, his grin overly bright. "I have no intention of visiting Preston. I'll let you and Payton do that. I'll just sit in the waiting area. Don't worry, I'll be fine." What he didn't tell her was that he hoped he'd see one of Preston's parents and have a chance to talk to them about Payton.

Kayla studied him. Sometimes he forgot how well she knew him. "I agree, we have to talk to them and find out what's going on," she finally said. "But I'm not sure a hospital is the place to do it."

"Where else then?" Seth countered. "You and I know that as long as Preston is at the hospital, that's where they'll be. Kayla, I don't want to cause them any stress, and as long as you don't mind taking care of Payton, she's welcome to live here. But, I want to talk to them, I want them to understand. If this really is the end for Preston, and it might be, I want Payton where she's safe and where she doesn't have to worry about taking care of herself, because someone else is taking care of her."

"I don't mind taking care of Payton," Kayla said, and Seth knew she was being honest. "I love that kid like you do. She's a great little girl-"

"-Are you talking about me?" Payton interrupted, coming into the room.

Kayla didn't hesitate, "Of course we were," she said brightly. "Because you are a great little girl." She held her arms out, and Payton ran over and threw herself into them, hugging the woman tightly.

I think she's starved for affection, Seth thought as he watched the two of them. Not surprising, she's been living with two people who she calls parents, but they sure as hell don't act like it.

The waiting room in the pediatric ward where Preston was staying was a brightly lit, sun shine yellow room with furniture in brilliant colors. Most of the furniture was of the molded, plastic variety, but there was a vinyl couch in a lime green so bright that if you turned out the lights, you would expect it to glow. Seth supposed the couch was for waiting children or parents that might need to doze off, but he wondered how you would get much sleep on that couch. This morning though, he was the only person in there.

Still, it was comfortable, and Seth sat down on it with his coffee while Payton and Kayla went into the room to be with Preston. There was a TV that seemed to be playing some kids movie on a constant loop, Frozen, it looked like. There was no one else in the waiting room, so Seth looked around for the remote, to see if he could turn it off. If there was a remote, he couldn't find it, but he did find a volume control on the screen itself and turned the volume down.

Even though he had fortified himself with so much caffeine he half expected to start vibrating, he did fall asleep for about twenty minutes, waking up with Kayla shaking him gently. When he opened his eyes, he saw Andrea and Myron standing in the entryway to the room. "Hey," he said, meaning the greeting for everyone. "Sorry, just dozed off."

"You're probably exhausted," Kayla said, smiling gently. "But Dolph and Payton are in with Preston and I thought the four of us-" she paused to indicate Payton's parents, "-could grab some coffee in the cafeteria and talk. We have to get Preston a chocolate milkshake too."

"Okay," Seth said, rising to his feet. His coffee was ice cold anyway, so he threw it in the waste can.

"We can't be gone too long," Andrea said, nervously chewing on her lower lip.

"Dolph is in there," Kayla reminded them, a smile on her face, but a tone that said this was not up for discussion. "If there are any problems, I'm sure he'll make sure you're called as soon as possible, but I think we have some time and this is really important."

Seth had to fight from smiling. Kayla, in her usual way had taken charge and gotten what she wanted. Andrea and Myron probably didn't want to leave Preston's side, but somehow Kayla got them to do it. He looked over at Kayla, whose back was to the Caldwells. She winked at him.

When they went to the cafeteria, Kayla suggested the Caldwells get a table. "We'll get the coffee and the milkshake," she said. When they walked over to where the ice cream was, Kayla ordered a chocolate milkshake. While it was being made, she looked at Seth. "I know you want to light into them, I do too, but Preston is pretty sick."

"Is he going to make it, do you think?"

Kayla sighed and looked at him with the same look Dolph had given him on the plane when he asked what happened once chemotherapy stopped. "Seth, he's not going to make it. The chemo is too much for him, so is radiation. Preston is not going to go into remission or anything like that. He never was, truthfully. The treatments were to hopefully give him a few more years. Not a decade, but a few more years. Now? They want to stabilize him and send him home. So he can die, Seth. We're not talking years, we're talking months, maybe even merely weeks, possibly even days."

Seth felt a sinking in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to be angry, he wanted to rip Andrea and Myron a new one over leaving Payton alone. But how do you look at two people who were trying to get their son stable enough to bring home to die and chew them out? It wasn't like they left Payton because they were heading to the circus, he thought to himself, They were taking Preston to the hospital. Damn it, this is the definition of complicated.

He wished he had the chance to tell Kayla about what he had learned from Dolph about Myron's twin, Preston's namesake and about how they had almost lost this Preston before he was born. But there wasn't time, he'd have to tell her tonight, when Payton was asleep. "So, what do we do?" he finally asked.

"The only thing we can do, make sure Payton will be all right," Kayla said simply, taking the milkshake that was handed to her and heading to get coffee.

When they got to the table, Myron and Andrea looked both tired and anxious as if they were desperate to get this over with so they could get back to their son. "I hope this doesn't get too warm," Andrea said, indicating the milk shake.

"I told them to make it extra, extra, thick," Kayla said. "He wouldn't be able to drink it now anyway. Fifteen to twenty minutes will make it drinkable."

"Oh." Andrea looked a bit crestfallen, as if she hoped the milkshake might be a good excuse to avoid this conversation.

"Look," Myron finally said. "We really appreciate that you came and got Payton. That was a very nice thing to do and don't think for a minute we're not grateful, because we are. But, you don't have to keep her with you. I know you're busy," he nodded at Seth, then looked at Kayla, "and you probably have to work-"

"Actually, I don't have to work," Kayla said, and although she was smiling, she spoke seriously. "I do contracting work, which allows me to set my own schedule. Money is not an object, Seth does quite well and we live well in our means. I told my boss I'd call him when I was ready to work again. So, someone being able to watch out for Payton is not an issue here."

"Unlike last night," Seth blurted out, before he could stop himself. Three pairs of eyes focused on him and part of him wished he could take it back, but part of him was relieved to bring it out in the open. This is it, he thought, Speak now or forever hold your peace. "Okay, that was a little blunt, sorry about that. But I'm not sorry for speaking up. You have my sympathy for what is going on with Preston. It must be a nightmare for all of you and I won't even trivialize your feelings by pretending I know what you're going through. But, I do fault you for forgetting your daughter."

"Things were-" Myron started to say, only to be interrupted by Seth.

"-I don't care if Preston was barfing blood, you don't leave your eight year old daughter home alone," Seth said, keeping his voice calm, even though he was anything, but. "Worst come to worst, one of you get Preston to the hospital ASAP, the other one makes sure to get your daughter and follow behind with her. No excuses."

His only reward for the outburst was that for a moment, Andrea and Myron did exchange embarrassed looks. But he wasn't sure if they felt embarrassed for what they did, or that they got caught doing it. "I agree, it was wrong of us," Andrea finally said.

"Are you going to call the cops?" Myron asked, looking almost sullen.

"We haven't so far," Kayla said, before Seth could speak. "And we didn't because of the situation. Had it been any other reason, and we might have. But under the circumstances, we're willing to leave this as all's well that ends well."

"Really?" Myron looked at Kayla, his expression hard. "Your fiance doesn't seem to feel that way."

Seth had crossed his arms over his chest and he knew he was portraying one pissed off dude, perfectly, but he couldn't help himself. "I'm not calling the cops," he said. "I am willing to let this one go, but I don't want Payton in a situation where she has to worry that her parents are going to forget about her. Until Preston-" he paused, realizing he was about to say, 'Until Preston dies,' but he caught himself, "-is settled, I want to know she's someplace safe, with people who will look out for her best interests."

"We understand this is a terrible time for you," Kayla said, leaning over the table and taking Andrea's hand, gently trying to comfort the woman. "I know that Seth here is being a little rough, but that's only because he's very fond of your daughter, we both are. We only hope that some day when we're married and have kids, we'll be lucky enough to have a daughter like Payton. But, in the meantime, we both know you are under terrible strain with Preston. We would like to know that Payton is somewhere safe, where she is looked after. Not only for Payton, but for the both of you as well. You both have so much on your plate, and you should be able to focus all your time and energy on Preston."

"That's easier said than done," Myron said, his voice slow and weary.

"What about her grandparents?" Seth asked. He wanted to just say, 'We'll take her! Please let us take her!' but he wasn't sure if that would be acceptable.

Andrea shook her head, drawing her hand back. "They used to watch her for us sometimes," she said. "But my father... he's suffering from early stages Alzheimer's, my mother has more than enough work just taking care of him. She can't take on Payton. That's why we pulled her out of school, because they can't watch her anymore and we're always traveling to Nashville with Preston. Unfortunately, Myron and I are, now at least, only children. We don't have an extended family beyond my parents."

"What about your church?" Kayla said, her voice still gentle. "The church I grew up with was like an extended family, surely someone in the congregation would want to step in?"

Myron shook his head. "We stopped going to church." His voice was a painful whisper. "We started going to that church because... well, because they had us believing that if we prayed hard enough, if we had enough faith, God would cure Preston. That didn't happen. What did happen was that we ran out of money." Myron paused and looked down at the table, clearly ashamed and embarrassed. "A sick child is an expensive child. I don't regret one red cent we've spent on Preston, and I'm grateful laws came in effect that allow us to have insurance, and we're grateful for places like St. Jude's where they treat our son whether we have the money or not. But still, the things that aren't covered add up. We lost our house, we lost any savings we have, you name it. And once we were no longer able to put aside that 10% for the Church, suddenly we were put on the wall of shame at Church and we left."

"Wall of shame?" Kayla asked, looking puzzled.

"It's a bulletin board where they post the names of all families who haven't given their tithing in the last month," Andrea explained. They put the family's name is big letters so even if you aren't over there reading it, you still can see it from across the room. And when your name goes up on the wall, you start getting, ignored a lot. They stop mentioning you or your loved ones in the congregational prayers."

Seth had heard of Churches like that. He and Dean had talked about them once, and Dean had nicknamed them "The Church of Greedy Jesus." "They got a good racket," had been Dean's opinion. "They'll tell you that Greedy Jesus will give you anything you want, as long as you're a good little boy or girl. But you'd better keep filling that collection plate, or suddenly, you've fallen out of Greedy Jesus' favor. I'm not a church going man, but if I were, the first thing I would do is ask to see the Preacher's check book. If he's making significantly more money than most of his congregation, the last thing they'd see is my ass heading out the door. I understand churches need money to keep going, but usually the church of Greedy Jesus is big on needing money and short on using any of it to help anyone but the man on the pulpit." They were preyed on as they prayed with these people, Seth thought, feeling a little bit of sympathy for the Caldwells. They told them God would cure their son, but the moment their savings ran out, when they could have used their church to stand by them, they were made unwelcome. Sorry, but miracles cost money. No, it's not our fault your son wasn't cure, you didn't pray and pay hard enough. He found it sad that something that was supposed to bring comfort and to make you a better person, religion, could be twisted for such base and terrible purposes and he wasn't talking about only greed.

"We still believe," Andrea said. "We still pray and read our bible, but we don't attend services anymore."

And no one there is willing to be friends with the deadbeat family with the sick kid, Seth thought, but managed to keep himself from saying. How Christian of them. He hoped the sarcasm he was feeling didn't show on his face.

"Well, we don't mind taking care of Payton," Kayla said. If she was affected by their Church problems, she wasn't letting it show, in favor of dealing with the immediate problem, which was Kayla to a 'T.' "We only wanted to make sure there wasn't a family or friend you'd rather see her with. But if that's not the case, we will be happy to watch her."

"We?" Andrea repeated, looking at Seth. "Aren't you usually on the road 90 percent of the time?"

"Yes," Seth said, knowing lying was pointless. "I've got some time off this week, but normally? I'm on the road a lot. But I do my best to keep in touch with both Kayla and Preston, and I'll continue to do that."

"This isn't permanent," Kayla said. "This is just until things are sorted out with Preston. When you both feel you're ready to have Payton come home, we'll bring her home right away. I don't want you to think we're trying to take Payton away from you, we know she's your child." She kicked Seth lightly under the table to make sure he knew not to interrupt. "We'll bring her to the hospital every day and when Preston goes home, I'll bring her over to visit with him, if everyone wants that. But I would rather know Payton is safe and that you both can focus your attention on Preston's needs."

The discussion continued for a bit, but the Caldwells agreed they could watch Payton until things were "settled" with Preston. Nobody used the word "die," nobody spoke of the weirdness of parents so willingly giving over their child to another couple. It was discussed in a civil fashion.

When they left the cafeteria, Preston's milkshake was a little bit thawed, but as Seth handed it to Andrea, who had almost forgotten it, he noticed the cup still felt cold. In less time than it takes to melt ice cream in a plastic glass, the Caldwells had given their daughter over to Seth and Kayla to take care of. Until Death doth take Preston from us, Seth thought.

When they got back to the pediatric ward, Seth went back into the waiting room, but it wasn't long before Kayla and Payton came out along with Dolph. "Preston is tired," Payton said. "He needs his sleep an' Mom and Dad are with him."

"I'm heading back to the airport to get back in time for the house show," Dolph said.

"Are you sure?" Seth asked. "If you want, you can come to our house and crash for a few hours."

"Nah," Dolph shook his head, "I'll get some z's on the jet."

Dolph looked tired, naturally, but he also had the look of a man who had spent too much time being falsely upbeat and cheerful and now needed to be alone for awhile to regroup. Seth nodded. "You take care," he said.

"You too," Dolph said. He grinned at Payton. "Take care, Pay, and I'll see you and your brother at Wrestlemania, right? You both promised, right?"

Payton nodded, smiling shyly. "We'll be there."

When they had parted company from Dolph, Seth looked at Payton and grinned. "So, have you decided Dolph is okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It was nice of him to come and see how Preston is doing. Dolph's okay, I guess." Then she grinned and added, "For a good guy. I still like bad guys better."

End of Chapter Eleven

Special Thanks To:

Guest I: That's okay, you don't have to read it all in one sitting, if you don't want. The story will be on FFnet for awhile, (baring system failure on their part, in which case, I do have a back up) I don't know where you got the idea that you had to read it all in one night.

Guest II: Is this fast enough? Seriously, I do try to get stuff out as fast as I can, but I also believe in quality over quantity. If I updated every day, my chapters would be a lot shorter and probably terribly written. I know there are people who update almost every day, who can still produce quality work, but I'm not one of them. But I do appreciate your enthusiasm for the story and hope it continues!

Guest III: I agree, I thought we needed to see the side of Preston that made him become the beloved Make-A-Wish child. And since Dolph and Preston have bonded, it made sense he'd be the one to tell Seth how he sees Preston.

Holly: You're absolutely right, the Caldwells were 100% wrong in leaving Payton behind. As Seth says in this chapter, even if Preston is barfing blood, one of you rushes him to the hospital, while the other gathers up Payton and follows. That's the way most families would do it. If there's only one parent, you call the ambulance and let the sick kid ride alone, while you gather up the other ones and take them with you.

However, as terrible as the Caldwells are, at least to me, it's not completely outlandish they'd let Kayla take her. They aren't thinking straight first of all, but also when they were at Fastlane, they let Payton hang around Kayla and Seth and their friends pretty much any time but when she was sleeping. While they may not know Seth and Kayla, they do know that their daughter trusts them. They also know that Seth is a big time Superstar with the WWE. He would have too much to lose to try anything inappropriate on Payton. So, while it was wrong of them to just allow Kayla to take her, it was a better choice than say, knocking on a random neighbor's door and saying, "Hi, we're your neighbors, can you watch our daughter for us?"

But, yes, again, the Caldwells are really bad parents to their daughter. It's pretty obvious that Myron never got over his brother's death and might even hold some guilt about it. I think he thought that somehow having a son and naming him Preston would "fix" it. It's stupid and it's wrong, but he wouldn't be the first person to think like that.

Zipper: Jarlsberg would be an excellent choice for this chapter. Perhaps a nice Gouda for the next? I do love me some cheese. And thank you for the extra slice of pizza, it gets so lonely in the dark tower all by myself. Perhaps you could slip me an IPOD loaded with our favorite songs on it? You know what artists I want to listen to!

As for the story, I figured that being a mother herself, Stephanie would be the first to grasp how mind numbingly terrifying it must have been for Payton and how terrible it was for the Caldwell's to do this to their own daughter. And you nailed it with Dolph. Dolph did tell Seth a whole lot more than he thought he did.

Emilee: Mud pudding does not sound like a delightful treat. But yes, Preston does have his charms, Dolph could see that. You're also right that no one is going to give the Caldwell's a Parent-of-the-year award any time soon, at least not for how they care for their daughter.

As we see from this chapter, Preston is not doing well, but at least Kayla and Seth will be taking care of her until "things are settled." After that? We'll see. I'm not even sure what's going to happen. I have ideas, but I'm letting this story take the direction it wants to take.

To all Guest Reviewers: (named and unnamed) Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review this story. It means so much to me.

Author's Notes: I know a lot of you were hoping that Seth would go medieval on the Caldwells, and he sure wanted to, but under the circumstances, he felt he couldn't. 1: Sick, now close to dying child. 2: Payton. He wants to make sure Payton is safe. Given the Caldwell's family circumstances, the safest place for her is with Seth and Kayla. Preston is in no danger of being abused by neglect. If anything, Preston is smothered. So, his big concern is Payton. Yes, he could call the cops on the Caldwells, but Payton would be removed from her parents for at least a few days of observation. That would cause a lot of strain on everyone. Seth figures the best thing is to be calm and make sure Payton is all right.

Also, I want to address The Church of Greedy Jesus. Yes, such places exist, churches that only care about your contribution to the collection plate. Yes, it's terrible and it's wrong, but they do exist, along with the "Walls of Shame" where they put the names of people who aren't contributing what the church feels they should (10% of all income) I admit, in my more cynical moments, it irritates me that a tax free organization puts a tax on its members that seems completely mandatory.

This is not a swipe at any and all religion, or even at Christianity itself. I have my own beliefs, I grew up in a very Christian household. But, like everything else in this world, some folks will twist things to their own agendas even when those agendas go completely against the thing they're twisting in the first place. The term "Greedy Jesus" comes from a friend of mine as well as Dean's check book argument. And I agree. I have seen churches where the Minister drives around in a Lincoln SUV and the congregation takes the bus. I don't like Churches that prey instead of pray. And parents of a dying child are easy pickings for the Church of Greedy Jesus.

Anyway, again, I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming response to this story. I never would have expected this type of response and every time I check the top of the story, I have to pinch myself to believe it's real. Then, I usually get all misty about it.

Thank you again and again and again. And as usual, I ask that you continue this support. Because I'd much rather write than clean my bathroom, or do laundry or any of those other tasks. And as long as I get the response, I can tell myself, "But I have to write instead of do those things! My readers count on me!"

But seriously, pat yourselves on the back, keep it coming, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Peace Out

Willow.