Abigail opened her eyes. Her body ached, her head swam the way it would if she had been given hard narcotics. She reached up and scratched her eyes, letting out scratchy moan.

"Abby," she heard her old pet name said by a very familiar voice. Her cousin- one of them at least- raised his head and looked at her. Windham Laurence Rotunda. He looked like he hadn't been sleeping. It was one of those looks that he always seemed to give her. There had been one time before when she woke up to him in a room of hers, but that time had been so long ago.

"Hi, Larry." She said, smiling as her thumb rub over the back of his hand.

The two of them didn't say anything. Larry just hugged her, shaking with the glee of having his cousin back. She wrapped one arm around his neck, her nose pressed into his hair. She could smell him, smell the familiar and welcoming scene of a person she loved so much. It was a woodsy smell, reminding her of the years they would slip out of the back yard and hide out in the woods and bog behind Larry's house.

"Are you smelling me?" Larry asked pulling back to look at her.

"Smell is a good way to remember the nicer things in life." She said, pulling away from him.

"Oh Abby." He mumbled, still grasping at her hand.

Her head still swam, she wasn't sure why. She had that nightmare of that Iraqi man pinning her, pushing his body into hers. Abigail closed her eyes, her hand closing around Larry's tighter.

"What's wrong?"

"Just a nightmare I had. An Iraqi man trying to force himself onto me." She shrugged it off as if it wasn't a big deal.

Larry's bushy face did give away fear, but then he turned his head to look at the doorway in her room. When she did, she blinked rapidly. There was a tall man there, with black hair and a beard just watching them. His arms were crossed over a wide chest and he was leaning against the door jam. But his eyes were on her, staring at her.

Abigail whimpered, trying to sit up further. He looked like the man from her nightmare. She was reaching for the nurse call button, to tell them that someone was going to hurt her but that's when Larry spoke up.

"Hi, Stu." Larry said.

"Hi." But it wasn't an Arabic accented man that spoke, but rather a rumbling English accent. "I see you are up, Abigail."

She didn't respond, her right leg stiff as her foot pressed into the mattress. She felt her breathing kick up, her left hand grasped at the railing in a futile attempt if he were to attack her then she would fight back.

"Abby, this is a friend of mine. You knew him as Wade Barrett, the winner of Season 1 of NXT." Larry said. "His real name is Stu Bennett, he's a real good friend of mine."

Maybe she had known about him, he just didn't look like the man she knew as Wade Barrett. Five years of no television was the downside to not knowing anything that happened with the WWE since her captivity.

"I didn't have a beard, that is probably why you didn't recognize me." Stu said, and she physically relaxed.

Opting not to have a stressful conversation with the tall man, Abigail turned to her cousin. "What are you doing here, Larry." She asked in a pitifully hoarse voice.

"Oh, Abby. You had me so scared." He said. "I came because you asked me to. We talked on the phone, don't you remember?"

She shrugged one shoulder, glancing at the doorway. "Maybe I will in a little bit."

"I'm glad that I'm the first to come see you." Larry smiled, pressing a fuzzy kiss to her forehead, an action that she didn't mind all that much. Actually, coming from Larry it was totally accepted.

"Mom, Dad, they haven't come yet?"

"No, maybe they got held up in Japan. I know they went that way for a last deployment somewhere."

Her lower lip started quivering, her body heat rose and it wasn't because of the fever that she was living with at the moment. The pain of knowing that her parents hadn't decided to come see here was just as painful as her left leg.

"They are closer than you were."

"I had to take a red line, and it's not really easy to find a plane going to Germany at nearly ten o'clock at night." Larry seemed to try to defend her parents. "Oh, Abs, please don't cry."

She scrunched her face up, the bitter taste of betrayal that she felt. She knew her parents were chilly, especially when it came to the things that she did but…she didn't understand.

"Even if they took a flight like yours, they could be here." She said, her voice more tense than it had been before.

She saw Larry look at Stu, holding his hands open and shrugging.

"Don't talk to me about them, remember that gathering I went to a few years back. The one where Colonel Winters nearly concussed Ste." Stu said, he voice lower in a tone that didn't give her the willies.

"My parents hate foreigners. I was dating a Latino guy back in high school and they nearly came back from deployment to ground me." Abigail mumbled, her hand hiding her eyes.

Larry sighed, scratching his head as he thought of what to say about all of that.

"That's nice to know." Stu said, making her look at him. "They wouldn't be the only ones."

"Fans are hard on you?"

"Pretty much. But there are those that really do respect me. I have some coming up to me and asking what I think of America. Tampa has treated me well."

"You're from Florida?"

"My mate Stephen is from St. Augustine. Having studied marine biology, I like to fish when I can." He offered a smile but she didn't reciprocate it.

Stu wasn't sure if he should tell Abigail what she did when they first met. He hadn't moved closer to the bed, he stayed rooted to the spot at the door.

"People say that I was gone for five years. That's probably why I don't recognize you." She said, nodding at him.

Larry chuckled. "Everyone was telling us that you were dead. The place that the explosion happened, I was told that they found your food but that was all."

"I wasn't, I got blown out of a window trying to escape." She pulled her right leg up and rested her right hand on it.

That was morbid with what she said about what really happened. But at least now he had a better idea what it was that she went through. Surviving an explosion isn't something a lot of people were able to do, at least that's what Stu thought.

Taking the bull by the horns, Stu took to steps into the room. He saw her lean closer to Larry, looking at him sideways. Nothing hurt more than thinking that he was scaring her.

"I'm a good guy, Abigail." He held his hands up in surrender, showing her that he didn't have any sort of weapon. "I'm here to give Larry support. We sort of ducked out of the European tour. My girlfriend really hates that I didn't tell her. Not that she would like to bother, she prefers clubbing that I do. A good beer or maybe a Guiness is something that I appreciate."

Her muscles relaxed, her right leg lowering. Stu smiled a little bit fuller this time. She still didn't really look at him, more quick glances, her attention solely on Larry as he continued to holding her hand and rubbing it. Larry was her only comfort.

"By the way, you've got a good right hook." Stu decided to play with her on that.

"Huh?" She looked at him.

"I did try to get you to wake up, but that was the bad idea. You nearly broke my nose, which wouldn't be the first time. Maybe we could box when you get out of here."

"I, uh, don't know." She said.

"It'd be fun, for me at least. I haven't had a good box in a while and it would be something you and me could do to get to know each other."

"Why?"

"I've listened for years about how great of a person you are. Right now, I could really go for another person who could take me on in a fight. Not wrestle, but a good boxing. Though I was a bare knuckle boxer champion, I wouldn't mind gloved fighting."

She seemed to think about it, shifting her gaze from him to Larry. Her hospital gown slipped off her shoulder as her head leaned back on the pillow behind her head.

"Maybe," she murmured, rubbing her eyes.

"I'll leave you to at it. I feel like going for a jog down by the Rhine anyway, relive some of my better memories during fonder years." Stu said heading back to the door. "Call me if you want a ride, Larry."

"Yeah, I'll do that. See you later." His friend said.

Stu walked out of the hospital room. He saw Dr. Conrad standing at the nearby nurses' station talking to one of the nurses, writing something in the folder. As if sensing him, Dr. Conrad looked up.

"Leaving?"

"Need some time to myself. I figured Larry deserved that. She's scared of me anyway."

Dr. Conrad nodded, tucking his pen in his jacket pocket. "She'll have to get used to you. If you're around a lot more then she'll get used to it."

"How can she do that."

"Prove to her that you're not a bad guy."

"I'm not shaving." He crossed his arms at the thought.

"I'm not telling you to." Dr. Conrad laughed. "Get her to do something."

"She seems willing to join me in a good boxing."

The doctor frowned. "Maybe not that fast just yet. She still has to get used to a prosthetic. Take her somewhere relaxing. May I suggest not to a show at least. Something a little calm. The last thing she needs is to have another melt down."

"I'll think about that, whenever she gets back at least. I'll be back later to pick up my friend. Maybe I'll see you around."

"If we don't, thanks for coming by. I know I enjoyed it." The doctor smiled and walked in the opposite direction that Stu was going to be going.

I wanted to get this out before Monday, because of the fact that there is something awesome I'm doing on Tuesday.

I am going to the taping of Thursday Night SmackDown that will be here in Portland, OR. So if you see a chick with glasses and wearing a glow in the dark pendant with a real spider in it, that would be me.

Thanks for reading everyone. I'll be back when I can.