Disclaimer Seth Rollins, 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 Twenty-Three

One of the first things Seth and Kayla did when they flew home after the wedding was to call Bethany Laughlin and tell her that they had gotten married, which Bethany approved of greatly. Seth had to fly Monday to film Raw and Smackdown, but he was home Wednesday. For the rest of that week, they fixed everything in the house on Bethany's list of potential problems.

At first the process of being approved for foster parents was merely annoying. The social/case worker assigned to them, Gina Picard, was heavy into making an appointment for one time, but showing up at another, earlier time, as if she was trying desperately to catch them doing something wrong. She set Seth's teeth on edge, because he just had this feeling that this woman wanted them to fail, but he couldn't say that to her. He did express his frustrations to Bethany, who sympathized, but told him there wasn't much she could do.

"You're our lawyer on this," Seth argued. They were in her office, a relatively small place in an older office building. Seth had arranged the appointment during a time he normally went to Crossfit, so as not to worry Payton, who seemed to be finding anything "official" about this whole procedure distressing. "Can't you be there when she comes over?"

"You're not on trial," Bethany said, smiling. "It would look funny to have your lawyer there."

"I feel like I am," Seth said, signing. "She asks questions about where I worked and when, over and over again, like she's trying to trip us up. Kayla and I both got confused about exactly what dates I worked for ROH, and she got all over us on that. We gave her the time line we'd had to submit, and that information was completely accurate, checked, and double checked..." he shrugged helplessly, "It's like she wanted us to fail."

"It sounds like you have a tough one," Bethany said, sounding sympathetic. "It happens."

"What do we do?" Seth wanted to know. "We can't fail at this. We just can't."

"I know you love Payton very much," Bethany said, "And I'll do what I can, but on this, you have to just bear it out. Don't lose your cool. If you really feel she's being unfair, you can call social services and ask for another caseworker."

"Will that work?"

Bethany shrugged. "I'll be honest, it could delay the process even more. You'll be starting from square one again, and they will think it odd. Your current caseworker won't admit to being unfair, she'll say that you are requesting another caseworker because you're likely to be hiding something. Let's put it this way, it won't do much good to you."

Seth decided to stick with the current social worker and to do his best to get along with her. And he really did try, as well as Kayla, but it was hard when he felt like she wanted desperately to find something wrong with them as a family. She expressed a lot of problems with Seth's away schedule and was barely mollified when he explained that he knew from other members of the WWE that it was possible to be a family while on the road so much of the time. This wasn't the days of long distant phone calls being twenty-five cents a minute, this was the days of Skype, instant chatting, and phone calls being no more than your monthly cell phone charges and you could talk as long as you wanted.

"That's fine and good," was Gina's response, "But sometimes a child needs a hug, not a face on a computer screen. What then?"

Kayla's assurance that she would be a full time parent did little to assuage Gina's fears. "There will be times when you need a break too. Everyone needs a break from parenting. What do you do then? It isn't like you can ask your husband to keep an eye on her while she goes to the store."

"She'll be in school soon," Kayla said. "She'll be gone six hours a day, five days a week, we'll be fine."

"Still, you're young, what if you want to go out with your girlfriends, party and have a girl's night out?"

"That is not likely to happen," Kayla said flatly. "I rarely go out and party, as you say. My idea of a good girl's night is to have my friends over, have some pizza and watch some movies. Yes, I love going out and dancing once in awhile with my friends, but you know, parents all over the world adjust to that. We will too."

Then, if that wasn't bad enough, along came the part of the process where they talked to family and friends. In Kayla's case it was easy, she had made a life in Davenport, so finding her friends was a simple matter. And even though her parents lived in New England, they were retired and always available for a phone call. The neighbors knew Kayla too. Seth on the other hand, was another matter. The neighbors more knew of him, than knew him. With the extra time off he was taking, they did see him more often, taking walks or riding bikes with Payton, Kayla or both, and he did stop and chat with them, but the relationships Kayla had forged with them took years.

This meant that they were calling members of the WWE for references, which meant that his friends were getting phone calls from Gina, who wanted big blocks of time and didn't like hearing that she would have to work around their schedules.

Stephanie and Hunter were called as his employers and they let him know when it happened. They didn't discuss what they had told Gina, but Seth wasn't worried. Seth wasn't even that worried about what Roman would say, he was pretty sure Roman would talk about how good Seth was with his daughter and what a stand up guy Seth was.

Dean, however, was another matter and when Dean told him in catering one day, that he'd spent a couple hours on the phone talking with Gina Picard, Seth felt his stomach lurch. It wasn't that he felt Dean would deliberately sabotage his chances, it was more that Dean sometimes said things to be funny, at times when humor was the last thing he should do.

"What did you say?" Seth asked, trying not to sound nervous.

"She asked me if I knew you and I said, 'Seth who?'" Dean grinned. Roman gave a snort of laughter which he quickly suppressed.

Seth shook his head, "Dean-" he began.

"Relax!" Dean said, still sporting that crazy, happy, grin. "No, I said I knew you."

"And then what?" Seth asked, afraid of the answer. Dean was so clearly in one of his jovial moods, who knows what he had said to Gina while attempting to be funny. Gina had no sense of humor, Seth was convinced of that. He was also pretty sure she lived in a lair instead of a house and fed on the laughter and drank from the tears of little children to sustain herself, but he might have been a bit too judgmental on that.

"I told her that you were a great guy to work with when you were sober," Dean said, cheerfully. "Which is true. I mean, I've only worked with you when you were sober, so yeah, I didn't lie. I don't know what it's like to work with you when you're drunk, but I can see you being hard to work with then."

"Dean-" Seth began.

"-She didn't ask me if I'd ever worked with you drunk," Dean continued, as he chewed thoughtfully on a forkful of chicken and pasta, "which kind of surprised me. But, I figured if she's cool with it, I am too. Then I told her about the time we all played Capture the Flag in the boiler room alone with-" He stopped speaking abruptly, his eyes wide. "Oh shit, I wasn't supposed to mention that was I?" He shook his head and slapped himself in the forehead. "Bad, Dean, Bad! Gesh, the one thing you tell me not to talk about and it's like I have to talk about it! Shit!"

Seth felt like someone had punched him in the chest, several times, while wearing an iron glove. He was on enough pins and needles over this, he didn't need joking Dean. "You didn't," he whispered, "you didn't." If he had looked over at Roman, he would have seen he was shaking his head and trying not to laugh.

"No," The grin faded from Dean's face to be replaced by a normal smile. "I told him that you were a hard worker and a great guy. I also told him that I think you, Kayla and Payton make a really good family, and if she was smart, she'd get the ball rolling so she could spend her time on kids that really do need someone to find them a good family."

Seth knew he was serious on that, especially the last part. "What did she say?" he asked.

Dean shrugged. "She said that rules were rules and she had to do a complete evaluation. She seemed pretty cool actually. Is she hot?"

Seth looked a him. "Why do you care? You're married."

"Married, not dead," Dean said. "You mentioned once that your lawyer was a hottie, so I'm wondering if your caseworker is."

"I never said Bethany Laughlin was a hottie," Seth protested.

"Yes you did!" Dean said, taking another forkful of chicken.

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes and no," Roman interrupted. "You didn't say the words, 'My lawyer is a hottie,' What you did say was that your lawyer looked like a college cheerleader. It's pretty safe to assume she must be pretty hot."

"Well, she is," Seth admitted. "Bethany Laughlin is hot, but I don't care about that, I care that she's a good lawyer, which she seems to be."

"Okay, so what about Gina?" Dean asked, "Is she hot too?"

"I guess," Seth said slowly, then shook his head realizing he was with his friends, Gina wasn't here to hear him. "No, not really. She's kinda chubby, which doesn't matter too much, I guess. She's one of those women who'd look weird if she was stick thin, if you know what I mean. She has a good sized rack, which is nice, I guess. But her face looks..." he hesitated to find the words he wanted, debating if he should try to be nice, then deciding to hell with it and being honest. "Mean," he finally said. "She looks like she's dealt with so much shit in her life that it's rubbed off on her and she's convinced that everyone is a douche bag." He sighed. "I just get the feeling with her that she feels that she knows deep down that I'm an evil child molester, but she just can't prove it." He pushed his tray out of the way. "Sorry guys, I shouldn't be complaining like this."

"How should you complain then?" Roman asked, tipping his head to one side to study him a faint grin on his face.

"Oh, I know!" Dean said, "He should complain like this!" Before anyone could stop him, he began speaking in a fantastic imitation of Dusty Rhodes. "Gina put me through hard times! I work my job, I work it hard, but Gina put me through hard times! Won' let me adopt Payton, she say I not worthy! Of course I'm worthy. I work hard, I'm worthy!"

Roman laughed. "Or, maybe he could complain like Randy Savage!" He shook his head, as if clearing out Roman Reigns and inviting the spirit of Randy Savage into his body. "Gina Picard, I'm watching out for you, you think you're gonna keep me from Payton? Well think again, cause Seth Rollins is on a roll and ain't no stopping him, ooooooh yeah!"

"How about Punk?" Dean suggested, then started into an imitation of CM Punk, "The problem with you, Gina, is you're so stupid, you don't even see greatness in front of you. You think you know what's best for Payton, you don't know anything. You wouldn't know greatness if it bit you on your fat, lazy, ass. I am The Best Father In The World and you should give me the respect and the daughter, I deserve!"

"Paul Bearer!" Roman exclaimed, then started rubbing his hands together, "Oooooh Ginnnnaaaa! You did it now! You can't keep me from Payton! I'll get the Undertaker-"

"-All right, all right!" Seth almost shouted to be heard, but he was laughing too. "Guys, I get it!"

"Do you?" Roman asked in his normal voice. "Seriously, do you? Because we're saying that we're your friends, you have the right to complain to us, however you want."

"Yeah," Dean agreed. "This can't be easy. I mean, I gave Gina a glowing report on you, but some of the questions she asked were a little... uncomfortable, to say the least."

"Oh?" Seth looked at him, worried.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," Dean assured him. "Mostly I told her that you having custody of Payton was what was best for you, Kayla, and Payton. That the three of you worked as a family. I wanted to say that you were a much better family than she was born with, but I wasn't sure that was cool. But I said the three of you looked happy together and that I thought Payton's best shot at getting over losing her whole family so quickly was being with you and Kayla."

"Look," Roman said, putting his arm on Seth's shoulder. "This has got to be the roughest thing to go through ever. I mean, I think about Leah and there were a few times when I worried that Jessica and I might not make it, but even then I knew that Leah would always be a part of my life. In your case, you know Payton is meant to be yours. I mean, some folks might say it's blasphemous, but the best way I can describe it is that it's like Payton should have been yours and Kayla's daughter, but something happened, I don't know what, maybe there was a mix up where the souls come from, but it's like God/Fate/whatever, gave her to the Caldwells because they couldn't get her to you. But now it's like fate is trying to correct itself." Roman signed. "I'm probably explaining this wrong."

"No, I get it," Dean said, nodding. "Remember when we all played Nerf?"

"We're not supposed to remember that," Seth said, trying not to sound bitter.

"Bullshit," Dean said, grinning. "We can't forget. But anyway, the way you were with Payton? The way you explained the game to her and watched out for her, the way she instinctively trusted you, yeah, that wasn't normal for her. I get the feeling that Payton doesn't trust a lot of people, but she trusted you on instinct. And on instinct you knew she needed a father and that the best man for the job was you."

"Yeah," Roman said, nodding. "It's like there was some imbalance going on in the world, and when you and Payton met, it started righting itself again."

Seth looked at these two men, his best friends and brothers by choice. He knew that not too long ago, if they had talked like this, he would have thought they were speaking some strange brand of new-age crazy, but now, he could actually get what they meant. "Yeah," he said slowly. "I get it. But the problem is that I don't think the state does."

"Of course not," Dean said, scornfully. "Courts and states don't get that crap, and maybe it's better they don't. They can't feel your heart, they don't know your heart. They know facts. They need to weigh facts and determine if Payton belongs with you."

"What if-" Seth began, then stopped, not wanting to say it, but wanting to hear what they would say when they heard it. "What if," he began again, stopped again, drew in a deep breath and blurted it out," What-if-they-don't-see-it-that-way? What if they conclude she doesn't belong with us? Then what?"

"It won't happen," Roman said firmly. "They'll play the red tape game as much as they can, but fate, God, Karma, whatever you want to call it, isn't going to let this mistake keep playing out. Payton will end up with you and Kayla, one way or another."

Dean nodded.

Seth wished he could feel so confident.

When the home study was done, there were psychological tests all three of them had to undergo. After that were endless questions asked of Kayla and Seth, both together and separately. Some of the questions, such as did Kayla and Seth believe that children should have set bedtimes at night, made perfect sense. Others were ridiculous, such as "were you spanked as a child." Of course they had been spanked as children, it was common place then. But neither of them considered themselves abused kids.

"Do you believe in spanking?" came next.

That was more understandable. "No," Seth said, and Kayla nodded right along with him.

The court psychologist looked at both of them, if trying to read them to see if they were giving the real answer or the answer they thought he wanted to hear. "I have a son," he said. "He's seven. When he was three, he developed an unhealthy fascination with the stove. We tried to explain to him that the stove was not a toy, but he was very young and very stubborn. It seemed that the more we tried to keep him from the stove, the more he sought it out. One day he reached out to touch the burners when they were on and my wife slapped his hand away. Do you think she was right?"

Seth frowned, wondering if this was a trick question.

"Yes," Kayla said, slowly. "Because better a slapped hand than third degree burns. Obviously, your son was too young to understand what you were saying, she had to show him that touching the stove meant pain. I'm sure she would have much rather the talks and the warnings worked, but they didn't. It was a case of desperate situations call for desperate actions."

"What does it matter?" Seth said, frowning. "Payton isn't three. We can reason with her. She's not going to touch the stove, she's not stupid. If she did touch the stove, it would be an accident and in that case, we treat the burn."

Seth left that session feeling like they had failed.

But, they must not have done too badly, because they were granted the right to be Payton's foster parents. A battle won, which the three of them were happy about, but sadly, it was only a battle, not the war. The next was the adoption process, which Bethany Laughlin could be much more involved in, but was a game of hurry up and wait, please.

There were more visits from Gina and other social workers, more interviews to be conducted. Seth, Kayla and Payton learned that the wheels of the system barely moved at times. Seth and Kayla had a hard time coping with this, but to Payton it was torture. Seth and Kayla tried constantly to reassure her that everything was fine, but she wasn't a stupid child, she knew her future was uncertain.

End of Chapter Twenty-three

Author's Notes:

Zipper: Zip, you always make me smile. If not for your jokes about locking me in the tower until I finish this story, then for your compliments to my writing and your willingness to say what's on your mind. As for the latest troll? Again, she has the right to her opinion and I told her so when I responded to her review. She can hate anything I write, that is her right and I will respect that. It's clear she doesn't get my writing and never will. Again though, with all the positive reviews I have, it's hard to imagine that the whole world is waiting for me to do her the favor and give up writing. As for the friendly writer, this person doesn't have any stories, so we can't say if she's a writer or not. But yeah, she's not a friendly reader.

I'm glad you "got" the wedding, it was the perfect wedding for Dean and Cinnamon. I figure the two of them like fun and they want people to have fun at their wedding. A BBQ with lots of booze, good music, and dancing seems like a lot more fun than a formal wedding.

Yep, three more chapters... well, when you read this, it will be two. Don't be sad. I might not do a direct sequel, but I will be doing other stories about the people in this tale, both canon and OC's.

Angela: Aw, thank you! Yeah, I wanted to show that weddings are about love and family and that they should be a celebration. As I said to Zip, I could see Cinnamon and Dean finding it much more important that everyone parties hard at their wedding, rather than everyone feels stiff and formal.

Yeah, the belt thing was my way of dealing with that. "I LOVE YOU BELT!" then, "Where's my belt?" And, let's face it, Dean loved having the excuse to wear it in his wedding. Cinnamon probably has to convince him not to wear it to bed. "Really, it's kinda heavy and not very comfortable to snuggle into, dear."

Yep, that's one of the reasons why I made Bethany younger, too. She's young enough to still believe she can make a difference in the world, or at least the parts of it she has some control over.

Kayla Sue? Thank you. A few people have expressed worry that Kayla is just too put together and they have a point I fully agree with, she does come across that way. I do hope, at some point, to show the work she goes through to be so "put together" but I didn't find places in this story to point that out without making it look obvious that I was doing it. People who always look/act put together, such as Kayla, go out of their way to hide how much effort that can take.

Thank you for the compliments to the brotherhood. I always hope I give it that right feeling.

Yes, I agree, Daniel Bryan needs to worry about what's best for Daniel Bryan.

Guest: LOL, right in the feels? I like that. Well, two more chapters after this one.

Parvati: Thank you! And I hope your exams are going well.

Emilee J: Are you the same Emilee that's been reviewing my stuff? You sound like her and you're the only Emilee that reviewed this chapter, so I'm going to assume you're one and the same. Thank you. I'm glad you liked the chapter. And yeah, I figure Payton will be the slightly favored child. I'm glad you liked that part.

Torrie: Glad to see you have free time, mystery woman. Yep, Cinnamon and Dean had their dream wedding, Seth and Kayla did too, it just wasn't the dream wedding they pictured. And yes, I too believe that everyone has the right to try to live happily ever after, even if that might be impossible.

To all People Who F/F and R/Red this story: (with a few trollish exceptions) Again, it's time to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, I really appreciate it. Every F/F is awesome, every review is a treasured gift (unless you're a troll, in which case.. meh, don't care.) We're coming to the home stretch, so yes, please, if it's not a bother, keep them coming, I really do appreciate them.

Until next time
Peace Out
Willow.