Title: Knight Life

Author: Luna

Feedback: Loved and appreciated…send it to ambersgrrl@yahoo.com

Archive: Luna’s Night Moves, Tainted Fiction, and Full Moon Romper Room…anyone else please, just ask.

Fandom: Ring of Honor/TNA/Wrestling

Rating: NC-17 (What else would you expect from me?)

Type: Fantasy

Pairings: Too many to list…just read to find out who’s with whom.

Disclaimer: I have not now nor have I ever been associated with Ring of Honor or TNA. All the characters that you recognize belong to Ring of Honor, TNA, or themselves with the exception of the ones I’ve created. Nothing is being gained from this except a need to pass the time.

Summary: They’re tired of being lonely wandering from town to town and living for centuries in the company of their chosen brethren. Now they’re going to do something about it. Will fate play kindly with them or will they be left in misery?

Author’s Note: This is going to be slightly AU. Please people, if that bothers you do us both a favor and STOP READING NOW!

Anything else: Many thanks need to go to my loving sister who held my hand as I worked out the kinks in this idea. My other sister, the one god forgot to give me at birth, much love goes out to her for her most excellent beta work and all the time she spends holding my hand. You girls ROCK!

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Chapter Nine

The girls arrived at their modest home just after four in the morning. The neighborhood was thankfully quiet. It meant that they wouldn't have to worry someone might see them carrying Mya into the house. The last thing that wanted to do was try and come up with some excuse for the younger girl's incapacitation.

As soon as Paige cut the engine Laney was out of the car. She ran up the wide stairs to unlock the front door. Once it was open she reached in to flip the switch for both the hall and porch lights. A step inside the door showed the hall clear and Mya's door standing open.

She wrung her hands as tears clogged her throat. Mya was one of her best friends. The younger girl had seen her at one of the lowest points in her life and still thought the blonde was worth knowing...worth helping. She never forgot that moment.

Laney hadn't had an easy life and tonight's events brought back memories that she had thought long buried. She raked long fingers through her tousled hair. Her blue eyes were bright with the sheen of tears. She watched Martina struggle to carry her sister refusing any offer of help.

Closing wide blue eyes the past came back to haunt Laney once more. She could still hear her mother's shrill voice screaming at her once again for a below average grade, or what her mother considered below average, which was anything other than an A.

“Do you want to end up like me,” her mother screeched at her waving her hand erratically. “Alone with a kid and no way to support either?”

Of course her mother never had any money because she was too busy supporting her other habit. Alcohol. So there was never any money for even the most basic necessities like food. They were constantly on the move because they were always behind on the rent.

After the first two moves Laney had stopped trying to make friends. It had hurt too much when eventually they would have to move once again. As a result she had dived into her studies as an escape from her mother and the harsh realities of life.

Her mother did love her; that much she did know. She just had a strange way of showing it.

The blonde remembered the nights when her mother would come into her room thinking Laney asleep. Her mother would sit herself carefully on the edge of the bed stroke her hair and croon softly to the supposedly sleeping girl. Yet the woman who would rant and rave the next morning about how slow Laney was bore no resemblance to the loving affectionate mother of the evenings.

The blonde had learned very early on that you didn't bring up those things as they would send her mother into a violent rage. Laney could say with complete honesty that her mother wasn't abusive, at least not the way most people would have expected with an alcoholic in the picture. That wasn't to say that she had come out of it unscathed.

Her mother would berate and belittle her only child but hardly ever raised a hand to Laney. The young woman almost wished that she had been beaten. Words were a more finely honed weapon and had a longer lasting effect than physical abuse could have ever been.

Even now years after the woman had drank herself to death Laney could hear her mother's cruel voice. It told her that she was worthless and no one in their right mind would ever want anything to do with her. They were words that she had taken to heart...after all if her own mother couldn't find value in the young girl what hope did she have of some stranger seeing something good in her.

With considerably effort Laney shook off those morose thoughts. She had a family now, one that loved and accepted her for who and what she was, warts and all. They may not all share the same blood but when you hurt one you hurt them all...and after all wasn't that how most people defined family. She knew that was how she defined it.

As Martina stepped up on the porch Laney led the way towards Mya's room making sure there were no obstacles in the other woman's path to trip her up along the way. In the younger girl's room she turned down the bed so it would be one less thing that Marti would have to do.

Marti laid her sister on the bed and just stared down at her. Pain was written all over the brunette's face. The other woman was a nurse so it had to be killing her that there was nothing she could do to help her sibling.

“Do you think we should change her into something more comfortable,” Laney asked softly knowing that Martina needed something to focus on. Later after they had all gone to bed the blonde knew the other girl would fall apart.

Martina walked over to her sister's dresser opening the top drawer that contained her under things as well as her pajamas. She pulled out her sister favorite sleep shirt. It happened to be a Raiders jersey that Mya had bought simply to annoy her older sister.

Closing her eyes briefly to fight back the tears that threatened Marti took a deep breath. The heat from a small hand placed on her shoulder reminded her that she wasn't alone in this...not by a long shot. The oldest Williams girl looked into blue eyes a shade lighter than her own.

“Why don't you let me do this Marti,” Laney said quietly.

“I can do this,” Martina responded.

“I'm not saying you can't honey. But we both know that the best way to help right now is to make sure you're okay too. Mya would tell you the same thing,” the blonde returned in the same gentle voice. She could see the indecision swimming in Marti's eyes. “I promise to take very good care of her. She's like a sister to me; you know that.”

Martina nodded wearily as tears spilled down her cheeks. “I keep waiting for her to wake up, to look at me and demand to know what's going on.”

“And she will, before you know it she's going to be yelling and then you'll be wishing she was asleep again,” Laney said with a faint edge of amusement tingeing her words.

The brunette smiled wanly at the joke. There was some truth to that however and Marti handed over the jersey to the blonde. Halfway to the door she paused staring at the still form of her little sister. “You'll let me know if she wakes,” she asked anxiously.

“You'll be the second one to know,” Laney assured the other girl.

Martina nodded again before heading for the bathroom hoping a shower might help clear her head.

Laney turned to the lifeless looking young woman on the bed. She smoothed the dark strands covering her face back. Like this Mya looked so young, so innocent, so fragile. It was the last that caused them the most concern. One of Mya's favorite saying was that no one got out of this life alive. All of them were hoping that this wasn't her final good-bye.

“You know Mya, if you wanted some attention there are better ways to get it than this,” she told the unconscious girl. Laney didn't wait for a response as she began removing the young woman's Docs, dropping them by the side of the bed.

The blonde removed the leather pants that seemed glued to the young girl's skin, then stripped the dark haired woman of her fishnet shirt. The last to go was the bra which joined the growing pile of clothes beside the bed. She had to fight with Mya's pliant body to get the jersey on her. “How come clothes come off her much easier than they go on,” she asked no one in particular.

“Probably because if the law didn't mandate clothing she wouldn't wear it,” Katrina said from the doorway. The redhead had to smother a laugh as Laney jumped three feet in the air.

“Gawd, you scared the life out of me,” the blonde growled irritably holding a hand to her chest.

“Sorry 'bout that honey. Why don't you go get yourself cleaned up,” Kat offered.

“I can't leave her. I promised Marti I would let her know if Mya woke up,” Laney responded attempting to move the unconscious woman into a more comfortable position.

“I can do that just as well as you can,” the redhead returned stepping up to help the blonde. “You know the advice that you gave to Martina could just as easily apply to you. Mya would be upset to know we had altered our routine just because she was out like this.”

Laney sat down on the edge of the bed moving the dark haired girl's favorite teddy bear within reach. “I know you're right but I feel like if I leave her now I'll be abandoning her.” She looked up at the older girl with tears glimmering in her cerulean eyes. “She was there for me when no one else was...I'll never forget that or be able to repay her kindness.”

“Oh honey,” Kat murmured stepping up to wrap her arms around the other girl's shoulders. “You're not abandoning her. There's a whole house full of people that are here for her and not just because it's her. We would react the same had this happened to you,” she assured the other woman. Katrina took hold of the blonde's chin gently, her mother hen instincts, as the others like to call them, kicking into high gear.

“Honey, make no mistake; every last woman in this house would do the same for you. I know that I get on your nerves sometimes and vice versa but when it's all said and done everyone in this house is family. It's not a conventional family but it's the one that we've made through blood, sweat, and tears. And at the end of the day that's the only thing that counts; what we've made here together.”

Laney hugged the redhead tightly holding on as if her life depended upon it. “Thanks Kat. You always know just what to say.”

Katrina patted the other girl's back comfortingly. “I know honey; it's a burden I'll have to learn to bear.” They shared a small laugh at that. “Now go on...take a shower and lay down.” She held up a hand when the blonde would have argued. “You don't have to sleep but your body needs the rest so just go lay down for a bit. I'll come get you if I need to do the same.”

The blonde walked to the door pausing in the hall. “Katrina,” she called softly waiting for the redhead to turn. “I just wanted you to know that if it was you on the bed I would still be this upset.” She stared down at the floorboards for a moment before raising her eyes to Kat's. “We may fight and argue and disagree, but the bottom line is that I am thankful that I have you in my life.” Laney smiled almost sheepishly. “I guess what I'm tryin' to say is that I love you Katrina.”

Kat smiled at the young woman as she turned to go, “Ditto babe, ditto,” she answered softly.