Chapter 11

Roman hurried down the hallway toward Lexi's room. He'd been gone longer than he liked, but after spending the last half hour talking with Hunter, he knew the time had been well spent. He rounded the corner and slid to a stop at the sight before him.

There, inside Lexi's room stood the great Bret 'The Hitman' Hart. Only what he saw instead of the iconic wrestler was a loving father tending to his child. "Um..." he slowly stepped into the room. "I don't mean to interrupt."

"Roman!" Lexi grinned and despite the swollen, ugly wound encompassing the left side of her face she appeared to light up at the sight of him. Could she possibly know how happy she made him with her reaction?

The Hitman turned to face him and Roman straightened his shoulders. "Mr. Hart, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Bret extended a hand to shake. "Mr. Hart was my father. You call me Bret."

"I-I couldn't, Sir."

"You can if you want to continue seeing my daughter," he challenged.

Roman cut his attention from Bret to Lexi who only grinned at him in return. "I think you might want to refrain from referring to him as Mr. Hart."

He smiled as he shook Bret's hand. "Okay, Bret. I'm honored to meet you."

"As I am to meet you," Bret replied.

Roman pulled back. "Me? What did I do?"

"Besides taking care of my daughter?" Bret replied. "It appears you've managed to capture her heart."

Before Roman could reply, Hunter walked in behind him. "Ah, Good just about everyone is here. I need to talk to you all about a new storyline."

Ten minutes later Roman sat in a chair next to Lexi's bed listening as Bret and Hunter argued.

"You guys allow my daughter to get severely hurt and now you want to capitalize on her injury by writing it into another storyline?" Bret shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. I'm going to take her back to Calgary with me so she can rest and recover properly."

"I understand where you're coming from, Bret, but we have to explain why Roman tended to Lexi like it did. Especially considering that the members of the shield are supposed to be bad asses."

"I don't give a shit about your damn storylines," Bret argued. "You're not going to use Lexi like that?"

Hunter sighed. "Don't make me go all managerial here."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means she's still under contract, so we can use her in whatever manner we see fit."

"Not while she's injured," Bret shot back.

"Hey!" Lexi shouted, causing Roman to hop up from his chair and reach for her hand. Instead, she pulled her hand away, but her attention remained on Bret and Hunter. "Stop talking about me like I'm not here. I am a grown woman and can make my own decisions."

"You're injured," Bret countered.

She grabbed her dad's hand. "I know you're just trying to protect me, but I'm not a little girl anymore, dad."

Bret looked from her to Hunter and back. "You're not going to jeopardize your health for them to cover some stupid storyline."

"She wouldn't have to," Roman added. He stepped forward and motioned to Bret. "Just hear me out for a minute before you say no."

Bret nodded. "Okay, I'm listening."

"If we're going to play the whole The Shield kidnapped her angle that Jerry and Michael laid out on Monday night, then let's do it right. She can stay at the hotel in bed, watching television and receiving room service while she recovers. Seth, Dean and I will take care of her and when we can't we'll make sure to have someone there with her."

Hunter nodded. "Keep talking."

"Okay, so the only time she'd have to do anything would be when we actually travel. Even then we wheel her around, make sure she doesn't lift a finger and essentially wait on her hand and foot until she's better." He pointed to Hunter. "You could set it up for us to pre-taped promos for us to cut for the storyline and Lexi's absence from the arena would help to solidify that storyline."

"I like it," Hunter nodded.

Roman looked to Bret. "Well, what do you think?"

"I think, I'd rather have my baby girl home with me," Bret replied.

"Oh come on, Dad," Lexi said. "We both know that after a few days you'd end up dumping me at mom's house under the pretense that she'd do a better job of taking care of me. I like Roman's idea and I think it would work better."

"Well," Bret sighed as he looked between them. "If it's what you really want and the doctor doesn't object then I guess I'll go along with it." He leveled a finger at Roman. "I'm relying on you to take good care of my little girl and keep me updated on her progress."

"Yes, Sir," Roman grinned.

"Okay then." Hunter clapped his hands together. "I have arrangements to make and work to do, so I'm gonna head out."

Bret pressed a kiss to the back of Lexi's hand. "I promised your aunts and uncles, your mom and your sister that I'd call when I knew something. Best not to keep them waiting any longer. I'm gonna go grab a cup of coffee and make the calls. I'll be back later."

She reached up and pulled him down into a hug. "Thanks for being so understanding, Dad. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie." He pressed a soft kiss to her nose. "I'll be back in a little while."

"Bring me a coffee?" she asked, the tone in her voice hopeful.

"Sure thing." He grinned. "Once small decaf coming up."

In an instant she went from hopeful to crestfallen. "Gee thanks for nothing."

Bret laughed as he turned and walked out of the room.

Roman glanced at Seth who took the cue for him to also exit. "Well, um...I should go find Dean and fill him in on all this."

Once Seth was gone, Roman eased a hip down on the edge of the bed. "Are you really okay with us taking care of you?"

She gave him a soft smile as she leaned back against the pillow. "More okay with that option than I was with going back to Calgary."

"You're not just saying that?"

She smirked. "I love my father dearly, but he's not the easiest person to live with."

"Oh I don't know," Roman offered. "He seems pretty cool."

"Try living with him," Lexi shot back. "He's been divorced twice. What does that tell you?"

"That maybe I don't know him as well as you do," Roman quipped.

She nearly giggled. "You got that right. He has the absolute best of intentions, but after a few days he'd realize that he was in over his head and he'd end up dumping me on mom." A visible shudder rippled through her. "Again, I love my mother, but if I have to spend more than a few hours with her at a time I'd want to kill someone."

"That bad?"

"Worse." Lexi cringed. "She's always been overprotective, to the point of smothering. I ended up at her house after the car accident. By the time it was over, I needed to recover from my recovery. No way am I doing that again." She shook her head. "I think staying with you guys is definitely the best option. At least I know you guys won't get all protective and bossy on me."

Oh, she had absolutely no idea what she'd signed on for. Roman leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. "Wanna bet?"