AN: Anyone who knows me knows I hate to see Sheamus get beat up, trampled, and thrown under the bus. Then this occurred to me, as an explanation of why Hunter had Sheamus fight him, to see Bautista's weaknesses. I have not yet watched Raw, so this is in response to Smackdown aired on March 28.

Enjoy

Hunter stood in his office looking at a large full-body shot of Bautista, one of his potential opponents at wrestlemania. Sheamus creeped up behind him, and whispered over his shoulder,

"Fella."

Making him jump. Hunter sighed wearily, really wishing he could rethink his choice of a safeword, since Sheamus said it so often.

"Sheamo, how are ya?" he said, mentally shaking off the darker path of his thoughts and patting Sheamus on the shoulder.

Sheamus gave him a soft grin. "Fair ta middlin, Hunt. Fair ta middlin. Ah tink a broke a nail a minute ago, but other than that, ah'm grand."

Hunter looked back at the picture of Bautista. "Okay, just wanted to make sure you weren't really hurt out there." His eyes traveled to Sheamus's abs, where a fake bruise was marring his skin.

"Makeup department did a hella job." Sheamus crossed his arms confidently as Hunter reached out a hand to feel the bruise.

"Don' smudge it." Sheamus warned, with a bit of a darkness in his tone.

Hunter opened his mouth to reply, "Yessir" but then thankfully checked himself.

After a dissinterested grunt, Hunter pulled his hand away.

"Didja get what ya need?" Hunter asked, gesturing to the picture.

"Don't ah always?" Sheamus asked.

A moment passed, and Hunter stared pointedly at Sheamus's hands. "Well?"

"Well, what?" Sheamus asked calmly.

"Aren't you going to help me?" Sheamus shrugged. Hunter balled up his fist threateningly. Sheamus looked at him in condescending surprise and fake joy.

"Oh, is Paulie gonna hit me?" he asked with sarchastic enthusiasm, making his voice the exact octave of hunter's. "Oh, please, Hunter! Please hit me! Please Please! I need it so bad!" he hadn't moved his hands, but his shoulders moved back, mimicking a bonded position.

Hunter clenched his jaw and flushed, knowing that those were the same words he used to beg Sheamus the night before.

Sheamus chucked darkly at Hunter's reaction, then stopped abruptly.

"Turn around."

He commanded with a dark tone. Hunter frowned, wishing he hadn't tought Sheamus the tricks of his trade quite so well. In response to his rebellion, Sheamus widened his eyes a bit and clenched his jaw softly.

Hunter turned around.

There on the board, several pins, ones he had placed beside the photo, were now pushed into the photo at several different depths, with different colors at different depths. Hunter looked it over as Sheamus's eyes rolled in his head, then snapped back.

Hunter turned to ask Sheamus, "How'd you-"

But he was no longer there.

"Hello?" Hunter called.

But he was all alone.

Again.