So... is gay. That is all.

-----------------

Lilian stepped out of the cab, pulling her duffel bag with her. She handed the driver the fee and then turned to face the hospital.

"Well isn't this fantastic," she muttered to herself.

Taking a deep breath of the summer morning air, she crossed the street. The glass doors slid open and she walked into the hospital, making her way to the front desk.

"May I help you?" the secretary asked.

Lilian noted her nametag read Laura. "Yeah, I've got a surgery scheduled for this morning."

The secretary smiled and said, "You'll need to go down this hall, the door is on your right for the patient admission room."

"Thank you," Lilian said politely, walking down the hall and arriving at her destination. She took a deep breath as she pushed open the door, relieved to see that the room was fairly empty sans an elderly man sitting in the corner of the room, reading a magazine. The last thing she needed was to be sighted by a fan and have the entire world know she was having surgery.

She walked up to the desk, waiting for the secretary behind the desk to open the window. "May I help you?" she asked.

"Yes, my name is Lilian Garcia. I'm scheduled to have surgery today."

"Okay, Lilian," the nurse said. "I just need your insurance card." Lilian handed the card over and waited for a few seconds for her to make a copy. "Okay. Have a seat over there and someone will be right with you."

She sat down with a heavy sigh. She looked around the room a few times and then opened her purse to get out her cell phone. The screen read that she had 7 new messages.

Her brow furrowed, but she flipped her phone open anyways. Three of the messages were voicemails, and the others were texts. The messages from Trish and Maria made her smile, as did Stephanie's. When she reached the final voicemail, she was half surprised to see it was from Dwayne.

Lilian debated on whether or not to listen to his message. Just as she was about to press the button, a nurse walked through the door.

"Lilian Garcia?"

She looked at her phone, and then threw it back into her purse. She smiled at the nurse and made her way over to the door. "How are you today, dear?" the nurse asked as she guided her down the hall.

Lilian shrugged slightly, saying, "Okay, I guess. I'm a little nervous."

"That's understandable," the nurse said comfortingly. "We're going to take good care of you, though." She gestured for Lilian to enter a room. Lilian entered, taking a deep breath as she looked around. "Now, this is just the room you are going to get changed in and prepped for the surgery. When you wake up, you will be in a regular hospital room, okay?"

Lilian nodded, settling down in a chair. "I just need to take your temperature and blood pressure," the nurse informed her.

"Okay," Lilian replied quietly. She was getting even more nervous as time went on. She really wished Trish or Maria or even Stephanie was here… but they had a house show scheduled.

When the nurse finished her regular duties, she handed Lilian a hospital gown. "Just change in to this, hon. If you put all your things into your bag, I'll be sure they get placed in your room."

"Thank you," she said with a small smile.

The nurse left. Lilian quickly changed into the gown. After she was done, she folded her clothes neatly and placed them inside her bag.

She sat back down, waiting for the nurse to return. Opening her purse, she took her phone out again. This time, she was positive she wanted to hear his message. She dialed the number to her mailbox and was about to press 1 when the nurse returned.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry but your phone needs to be off," the nurse said apologetically. Lilian nodded, turning the phone off and placing it in her bag. "Dr. Andrews will be in in a few moments to talk to you, then the anesthesiologist will be in to give you anesthesia."

"Okay," Lilian said, settling back in the comfortable chair as the nurse left. She briefly considered grabbing her phone to hear the message, but figured that it wasn't anything important. Dwayne probably just wanted to wish her luck today.

"Morning, Lilian. How's my favorite WWE ring announcer?" Dr. Andrews asked with a smile as he entered the room.

"I'm okay. Ready to get this over with and get back to work."

"That's my girl," Dr. Andrews said with a laugh, settling done next to Lilian.

"Now, Lilian, you know the procedure. It hasn't changed since the last time you had this surgery. Afterwards, you know you're going to be very hoarse and sore between 5 to 7 days. I would prefer you don't use your voice at all, not even to talk. If you have to talk, please just write it."

Lilian nodded. "Right, I remember."

"There'll be one difference. The polyps are quite a bit larger this time. I'm going to prescribe some pain medicine to you. I know I did last time, but I'm pretty sure you're going to want them after today," he explained.

"Well that sounds comforting," she joked.

"Just a precaution. I'd rather you not be in any amount of pain."

"I appreciate that," Lilian said with a smile. "How long do you think I'll need to stay in the hospital?"

"Just until tomorrow afternoon. We need to be sure that your throat doesn't swell up and restrict breathing." Lilian swallowed instinctively, covering her throat with her hand. Dr. Andrews chuckled at her movement, telling her, "It's never happened, so don't worry."

"Okay," Lilian said in a small voice. "I trust you, Dr. Andrews." She turned her head towards the door as a woman in a lab coat entered.

"Lilian, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Daniels. She's our anesthesiologist. She'll be taking care of you today."

"Ms. Garcia, how are you?" Dr. Daniels asked, settling down next to Dr. Andrews.

"I'm okay," Lilian replied, wondering how many times she was going to answer that question today.

"Ready to get this over with, huh?" the young woman asked sympathetically.

"Yeah, definitely."

"Alright, let's get you into surgery."

All three of them stood up. Dr. Andrews held the door open for the ladies. Outside in the hallway was a hospital bed waiting for Lilian. She groaned inwardly as she laid down on the bed. Her stomach growled, reminding her that not being able to eat anything for 12 hours prior to surgery was really taking its toll.

Once they reached the operating room, Dr. Daniels put a gas mask over Lilian's nose and mouth. "Just take some deep breaths okay? When you feel like you're not really here, tell me so I can insert your IV with the anesthetic."

Lilian nodded, listening to what she was telling her to do. She alerted Dr. Daniels when she thought her legs were magically floating off the table. She winced when the needled pricked the inside of her arm and clenched her teeth as the fluids pressed into her veins.

"Okay, just count backwards from one hundred now and next thing you know you'll be in your own room."

Lilian looked up at the lights, thinking to herself, 'He really didn't show up. Figures.'

-------------

Lilian forced her eyes open, wincing as the bright lights bore into her eyes. She moaned slightly, bringing a hand to her throat as she tried to swallow. God, her throat felt worse than it had in the past two weeks. She glanced around the room, surprised to see there was no one in the room… not even a nurse.

Lilian tried to breathe slowly, feeling her breath catching in her throat. She moaned again, feeling panicky as she tried to catch her breath.

She reached out, trying to find the nurse call button as she struggled to breathe. Lilian gripped the sheets, feeling downright panicked.

"Whoa, settle down! Lilian, calm down! It's okay!"

Lilian slowly became aware of the voice calling her out of her nightmare. She was gasping for breath, very aware of the burning sensation in her throat. She brought her tear-filled eyes up, shocked to see his concerned brown eyes looking down at her.

"D..." she barely managed to choke out.

"Shhh," he soothed, rubbing over her hand with his thumb. "You aren't supposed to talk," he said softly.

She rubbed her throat, silently pleading for him to get her some water.

"Hang on." He left her side for a few seconds to fill up a plastic cup with water. He placed a straw inside and handed it too her.

She started to chug the water, but stopped and nearly spewed what was in her mouth from the burning sensations in her throat.

"Slow down, Lil."

She sipped on the straw, letting the cool water soothe her throat. Lilian lay back against the pillows, closing her eyes briefly before looking back at Dwayne, using her hands to gesture that she wanted a pen and paper. Dwayne complied, handing her a pad and pen. He watched as she slowly wrote on the pad, repeating what she wrote when she held the notepad up.

"'I'm sorry, D. I just had a bad dream.'" He nodded, then said, "It's okay, Lil. I figured because you were thrashing pretty badly." He watched as she wrote again. 'I didn't think you would be here.' He frowned slightly. "What do you mean? Didn't you get my message?"

Lilian shook her head, a confused look on her face as she tried to remember. "I called you earlier and left a message that I was running late but I would be there when you woke up," Dwayne explained.

Lilian nodded in realization, writing again. 'I tried to check my messages, but I had to shut my phone off.'

"Oh," Dwayne said, stroking her sweaty bangs back. "It's okay. I'm here now."

'Nobody came to see me,' she scribbled down.

He shook his head. "Yes they did, Trish and Maria were here shortly after I got in. They brought you that set of balloons," he said, gesturing to a large set of balloons that were tied to a basket filled with all sorts of candy.

Lilian studied the contents of her room. She started writing again, confused. 'I woke up before and nobody was in here. You weren't, those balloons and everything else wasn't in here.'

He read it and frowned. "Lil, you're just now waking up. You must've been dreaming."

Lilian shook her head, trying to gain her bearings. 'How long was I out of it? What time is it?'

Rock glanced at his watch and said, "It's 5:15. Your surgery was at 11:00."

'Why didn't you guys wake me?'

Rock chuckled, rubbing a hand across her cheek. "Babe, you just had major surgery. I'm sure if one of us would have woken you, you would have belted us."

Lilian wrote, Dwayne laughing at the one word she wrote as an answer. "Probably," he repeated, continuing to stroke her hand with his thumb. "So, how are you feeling?" She waved her hand from side to side, frowning slightly. "Sore?" She nodded, wincing as she touched her throat, writing out a question.

'Why are you here?'

Her expression confused him. He couldn't tell if she was angry, upset or grateful. "I promised you I'd be here when you woke up. When have I ever lied to you?"

She simply shrugged and placed her empty glass on the tray next to her bed. She turned to a fresh sheet of paper and wrote, 'You can leave now.'

He tried to keep his hurt hidden. "Do you really want me to go?"

She nodded.

"Why?"

She sighed as though she was annoyed and then scribbled down, 'I don't want to screw around with you right now, okay? My throat hurts and I just want to go to sleep.'

"Okay, Lilian," Dwayne said softly, his tone still confused as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I'll come back later, okay?"

Lilian shrugged, hoping she indicated in her movements that she really didn't want him to come back. She watched as he left, then shoved the blankets off of her. She swung her legs down, walking over to the balloons and flowers, grabbing the card sitting in front of it with a shaky hand. Lilian opened it, smiling despite her misery when she saw an adorable kitten with a thermometer in its mouth on the front of the card.

She frowned slightly when she saw the message on the inside. Lil, Get Well Soon. Love ya, D. 'I thought he said these were from Maria and Trish,' Lilian thought to herself, jumping when a voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"Lilian Anne Garcia, are you supposed to be out of bed?"

Lilian spun around, trying to catch her breath and calm her thumping heart. She opened her mouth to talk.

"Ah!" Stephanie said. She sat down the items in her arms and led Lilian to her bed.

Lilian laid back down, thankful that her heart beat had finally regulated.

"I passed Dwayne in the hall. He looked really sad. What'd you do to him?" Stephanie asked as she picked up her belongings.

Lilian flipped open to the page where she'd told him to leave and showed it to her friend.

"Damn Lil, cut the guy a break would you? He really likes you, in case you haven't noticed." When Lilian rolled her eyes, she decided to change the subject. "I brought you the new editions to Cosmo, People and Playgirl." The look on Lilian's face made Stephanie laugh. "I'm kidding, I did however, get you a nice, big book of all types of word puzzles."

Lilian grabbed the notepad, writing for a few moments before showing it to Stephanie. 'I guess what I don't finish I can put in my book I carry down to Raw.' Stephanie laughed at the mischievous look on Lilian's face, knowing that the little blonde hated when the crew teased her about that book, saying she had naked pictures of the guys and crossword puzzles in there.

"Seriously, Lil, how are you feeling?" Stephanie asked gently.

Lilian shrugged, writing, 'I hate not being able to talk.'

Stephanie nodded sympathetically, patting Lilian on the shoulder. "I know, hon. But it's just for a little bit. And just think, you'll be a lot better when you actually can talk again."

'Steph, I'm scared.'

"Why, Lilian?"

'Dr. Andrews said he was going to send the polyps to the lab for testing. Why does he need to do that?'

Stephanie shrugged. "I don't know, but I don't think it's anything bad. You know Dr. Andrews is the best and he'll take good care of you."

Lilian nodded and peered around to see what else Steph had.

"Hey now, Nosey Nelly, this is for later."

'What is it?'

"A surprise, but I won't be giving it to you."

'Then who?'

"A certain Rock, you may know him."

Lilian shook her head and looked for the remote to the TV that was turned off.

"C'mon Lil, don't be like this! You know that he really cares for you. Why won't you just let him baby and pamper you?"

Lilian opened her mouth to reply, stopping when she remembered that she wasn't supposed to talk. She grabbed the notepad, scribbling furiously. 'I'm not a little kid! Why can't people just let me fend for myself?'

Stephanie stared at the words for a few moments before meeting Lilian's harsh gaze. "Lil, no one thinks you're a little kid." Lilian shook her head and began to scribble, only to stare openmouthed as Stephanie grabbed the pad from her hands and threw it across the room.

"No, listen. Dwayne loves you, Lilian. He has for awhile. And I know you like him. Everyone does. The look in your eyes when you're with him tells the story. So why can't you accept that?"

Lilian merely glanced at the notepad across the room and Stephanie sighed, muttering to herself as she retrieved the paper and handed it to Lilian who scribbled something.

'Get out. And tell anyone else you see to leave me alone.'

Stephanie left without saying anything else. She reached the waiting room where she saw Dwayne sitting in one of the chairs.

"How'd it go?" he asked once she was seated next to him.

"She pretty much wrote out my assault."

"I'm sorry, Steph. This is all my fault. I should've just left her alone like she told me to."

Stephanie scoffed. "Please, that woman doesn't know what she wants. Trust me, she would've been just as pissed if you wouldn't have come. I actually think you being there with her made her realize something."

"I don't think having her tell me to leave is exactly what I was looking for."

"Shut up, Dwayne. I didn't mean that," Stephanie said with a slight laugh.

"Well, what do you mean?" Dwayne prodded, knowing that even in the outside world, the youngest McMahon liked to have an air of drama with everything that was said or done.

Stephanie sighed, settling back as she looked at Dwayne. "I think she realizes that she likes you. And she has no idea how to tell you."

-----------------------------

End part 3