Title: What Went Wrong
Summary: Hunter muses about Shawn's financial crisis before and after he confronts him.
Notes: Based on the amazing promo by Shawn Michaels and Triple H on the 23/12 Raw.
On the sixth ring, the cell went to answer phone. The automatic message played in asking him to leave his name and number. He didn't listen to any more of it, knew it so well. He ended the call.
Normally, he'd leave a message. This wasn't a normal situation though.
He'd lost count of the calls he'd made that were never answered. If he called Shawn when he knew he should be at home, Rebecca always answered and Shawn was always out, and she never knew when he'd be getting back. He always left a message for him to call back and they were never returned.
And so it came to this.
No answers to a million questions. And there was only one person he could get them from.
And that was exactly what he intended to do. Even if it did mean flying halfway across the country.
That's just what friends do.
**
He came to talk some sense into Shawn and as far as he was concerned, he'd only managed half a job, for he'd only managed to talk to Shawn.
His friend was adamant that his decision was the right one and that he wasn't making a mistake, such as Hunter was implying. He wasn't sure what exactly he'd expected from the conversation, but that wasn't it. He'd hoped that Shawn would cease his association with the unsavoury JBL character and accepted his offer to loan him some money.
He wasn't that surprised that Shawn was headstrong in his belief that he was doing the right thing. Hunter thought more of it that Shawn was doing the wrong thing, but for the right reason.
But through all that, the things that hurt him the most was Shawn attitude around him. He understood him not wanting to accept a handout and he could even see the logic behind it changing their friendship, even if Hunter didn't believe anything bad would come of such a thing.
It was Shawn's refusal to look at him that Hunter hated. He'd briefly make eye contact, but not for long. And the look in those eyes was almost soulless. There was none of the things he usually saw when he looked at his friend.
And he hated that Shawn had pretty much done all he could to avoid Hunter. They'd been at the Armageddon pay-per view together and Hunter had never mange to speak a word to Shawn. He'd somehow hidden round the arena all night and left while Hunter was in the ring.
To Hunter, that said it all. He wasn't proud of what he'd done. He hated himself for what he was doing, but behind that, his family were his reason for doing it.
He loved his wife and kids so much that the indignity he had to suffer from being JBL's lackey, taking his dirty money and going from one of the most loved wrestlers to someone who was booed by the fans for his association with JBL, but that love he had would make him do it and keep doing it.
Hunter had stuck around long enough to see Shawn help JBL secure his victory over Rey and saw the anger that had been in Rey's eyes. He'd walked past the locker room, door slightly ajar and heard Rey calling Shawn out, asking him why he'd done it and how he thought they were friends. Shawn never said anything, except that he was sorry once, which just seemed to provoke Rey more into his tirade. Hunter heard a couple of guys get involved, was certain someone told Rey that Shawn 'wasn't worth it'.
Shawn probably thought that was true as well.
Hunter knew that right here and now there was nothing more he could do.
Shawn knew how he felt about the whole thing, and knew he was there if he needed him. He wasn't exactly expecting Shawn to call him up and ask for any help, but Hunter knew that he'd just have to trust his own judgement on the situation. If he felt Shawn needed help, he'd be damned if he were going to just sit back and watch.
He told Shawn earlier that he'd let pride ruin him before. He just hoped that Shawn was wise enough to not go down that path again. He'd do all he could to stop Shawn from ruining himself, but there was only so much he could do.
But Hunter knew one thing for certain, he'd do anything he could to help Shawn out of the mess he was in, even if that meant making a sacrifice of his own. He knew that sooner or later, something had to give. And whenever that time was, he hoped Shawn's dignity was still intact.
The End (for now)