Epilogue

Seth discretely checked his jacket pocket when Bayley turned their car onto their street. At one time, before they owned it, their house had been a disgrace to the neigbourhood. Now, almost a year later, it was at the opposite end of the scale. With the amount of money spent on it, and the quality of the work that had been done, it had to be the most valuable home in the area. That was really something to be proud of, as far as Seth was concerned.

While they had been away at Raw the previous day, the landscape gardeners that he'd hired had finished re-laying the lawn in their back garden, which had been the absolute final job needed to complete the renovations. Seth had carefully planned it that way when he'd learned of Vince McMahon's plan to remove Bayley's character from TV. The previous night had been a difficult one for Seth, especially when Bayley had come back through the curtain in floods of tears. Who would ever have expected that, after how reluctant she had been to take the new role on when it had been assigned to her?

"I'm proud of you, angel," he told her. It was the first time either of them had spoken for a few minutes.

"Why?"

"Why? Because you did such a brilliant job with the commissioner role. Because you're such an amazing person. Because I love you. Take your pick."

"I'll take because you love me," she smiled bashfully. "And I love you too, Seth."

Their house came into view ahead of them. "It looks great, doesn't it?"

"It really does. I always knew we would make it into a nice home, but now that we've done it, it kind of blows me away. I honestly feel like I'll never want to leave. If we grow old with each other in this house, I will be totally fine with that."

Seth thought about saying something about kids, but they hadn't had a serious conversation about that yet, and this wasn't the time. Maybe he could bring it up while they were on their vacation in the Caribbean, which was to begin the next day. Until he had met Bayley, he had always thought that he would never want children. Other people's kids had always annoyed him. But now that he had settled down with the love of his life, and had seen the positive effects that fatherhood had had on Dean, he was starting to think differently about it. Who knew, maybe one day Liam Ambrose would wrestle against a future Rollins child? Or if he and Bayley had a girl, maybe she could follow in her mother's footsteps as a women's champion? It was an amazing prospect to consider.

The car pulled into the driveway, and Seth snapped back to reality. If ever there was a time not to be daydreaming, this was it. "I want you to go in first, babe," he said as she killed the engine. "This is the first time we've come back to the finished house, so think we should do things right."

"Okay," Bayley gave him the kind of grin that told him she thought he was being a little strange. He was, but for a good reason.

Getting out of the car, he checked his pocket again. Yes, the box was still in there.

"I think we should get straight on with unpacking our cases and then packing again for tomorrow," Bayley said as they walked up to the front door.

"Good idea," Seth agreed for the sake of it. He knew it wasn't going to happen.

She put her key in the lock and then paused, remembering what he'd said about marking the occasion. "Are you going to carry me over the threshold or something?"

"No. That's what you do the first time you come home after getting married. But I will kiss you before we go in. Welcome home, angel. We're going to be very happy here." He leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips.

"I love you, Seth."

She opened the door and walked in. Behind her, Seth reached into his pocket.

Bayley walked into the house, looking around the entrance hall, especially at the marble staircase. "We really are going to be so happy here. Everything about the atmosphere here tells you that this is a happy home." She continued looking around with a smile on her face. Then she realised that Seth hadn't answered her. When she turned around to look at him, she saw him down on one knee with a small jewelry box in his hand.

"There's only one way I figured we could be happier," he said with a big smile.

Bayley's hands flew to her mouth as she let out a squeal of surprise mixed with delight. She felt like her legs were going to give way beneath her.

Seth opened the box, revealing the 18 carat diamond engagement ring that he'd held onto for months, waiting for this moment. "Bayley, will you marry me?"

"Yes. Yes, of course I'll marry you," Bayley replied through her hands as tears filled her eyes.

"I'm going to need your finger," Seth said, grinning up at her.

"Sorry," she giggled, and held her left hand out to him while she wiped her eyes with her right.

Seth slipped the ring on to her finger, then kissed the back of her hand. "I love you, future Mrs Rollins."

"I love you too. Come here so I can hug you."

Seth got to his feet and hugged her, holding her as tightly as he could without hurting her. "So, like I said, when you come home for the first time after getting married, I'll carry you over the threshold."

"Deal," Bayley said, resting her head against his shoulder. They spent the next couple of minutes just enjoying holding each other, before Bayley decided to risk asking a question of her own that she'd had on her mind for a couple of months, but had never found the courage to bring up. "Seth, I've got the feeling right now that this is kind of the end of chapter one of our story. Does that make sense?"

"I guess so," Seth replied thoughtfully. "But there are plenty more chapters."

"Of course. What I was going to ask is, do you think one of our chapters might, uh, I'm messing this up," she said, frustrated with herself. "What I'm trying to say is, do you think we'll ever have kids. Because I would like to."

"Honestly? I used to hate the idea of having a kid. But recently, I've totally changed my mind about it. So, yes, I would like us to try for a baby, if that's what you want?"

Bayley squeezed him even tighter. "You mean, we could start trying now?"

Seth pulled back slightly to look in her eyes. "Well, we'd be better off going upstairs first."

"Idiot," she grinned back at him. "I think our chapter two is going to be as good as chapter one."

"If not better," Seth promised her, followed by a kiss on the lips. Taking her hand, he lead her up the stairs.

A/N: A sequel to this story has now been published. It is titled The Hugger's Return.