Seeing Things (For The First Time), a wrestling fanfic

LUCK OF THE IRISH ONE SHOT CONTEST ENTRY

PROMPT 4: ANY STORY OF MY CHOOSING USING THE WORDS SILLY SODA, MEANDER, JAYBIRD AND BACK BITER, HIGHLIGHTED IN BOLD.

CHARACTERS FEATURED/PAIRINGS:

SHEAMUS X AKSANA

CURTIS AXEL X OFC - BRIANNA O'BANNION

ENDING COUPLES ARE :

SHEAMUS X OFC - BRIANNA O'BANNION

CURTIS AXEL X AKSANA

A hundred years will never ease
Hearing things I won't believe

I saw it with my own two eyes
All the pain that I can't hide
And this pain starts in my heart
And this love tears us apart
You won't find me bent down on my knees
Ain't bendin' over backwards baby
Not to please

- The Black Crowes, Seeing Things ( For The First Time )

"Where are you going?" Curtis asked his brunette girlfriend, Brianna O'Bannion as she wiggled into jeans, slid her feet into the biker boots by the edge of the bed and grabbed her keys.

She didn't answer, instead, she slunk into the bathroom, staring at her reflection in the mirror, then the rock of an engagement ring on her finger.

His arms went around her as he said "I love you, Bria."and his lips found that sweet spot in the bend of her neck. She bit her lip as she thought back to what a friend of hers told her the night before while they'd all been out at some bar the night before. She sighed as she bit her lower lip and muttered back, "Back at you, Joe." again, wanting to say the words, but again, thanks to her having the illusion of love shattered for her at a young age when her parents split up after her father basically ripped out her mother's heart.. The words wouldn't come, they'd never come, not as long as she'd been dating him, actually.

She knew it bothered him and she knew it must hurt, but she just couldn't say them, not until she was damn sure she really meant them.

x.x

'I'm only saying this because you're like a sister to me, Bria. When you're not around? Curtis is with Aksana a lot. I even saw her leaving his hotel room at 4 in the morning, wearing one of his t shirts, nothing else.'

x.x

Her mind went back also to the whispered conversation between the pair backstage, the way their hands were all over one another carefully, the way Curtis looked at Aksana.. He used to look at her that way, he hadn't in such a very long time.

What made her curious was why did Aksana have to go after Curtis? She had Sheamus, a man many women would kill just to have one damn night with.. Hell, she couldn't lie herself, she'd actually had to fantasize she was with Sheamus a few times lately, when she was with Curtis, just to get herself in the mood to even want to touch him.

Brianna bit her lower lip as she tried to get the nagging doubts that surfaced with his marriage proposal safely out of her head, where they belonged.

After all, maybe the friend who'd enlightened her, Layla El, had mistaken what she'd seen.. Or something.. There had to be a reason, but it begged to question.. If they'd been dating, if they'd been existing platonically for the better part of a decade give or take, then why would he want to make that next step now?

She wasn't an idiot, her father had been a semi professional football player, so she knew about the stress and strain that a life on the road could bring to a couple..

She also knew about the temptations, the other women that the men sometimes met.. Her own father left her mother for a cheerleader on his semi pro team.

That's sort of why she was so skittish about Joe's having asked her to marry him..And naturally, having been told what she had the night before, she was curious, and so she asked him..

"Why, Joe?"

"Why what, Bria?"

"Why do you suddenly wanna get married right now? And why are you in such a rush to do it?" Brianna asked him as she held his gaze in the mirror, searching his eyes long and hard for a sign that her friend was telling the truth.

"Because I love you?"

"And that's it.. We've been together since 10th grade, we went all the way through college, through your being on the road so much, and you wanna do this now? You know how I feel about marriage, because of what happened to my mom and dad.."

Curtis faltered a moment and he bit his lower lip. Something didn't feel right, in fact, her whole attitude since she accepted his public proposal last night, well.. it didn't add up. She wasn't the happy doting fiancee he thought she'd be.

Instead, she was quiet, contemplative, almost afraid, if you really thought about it. And of course, she still couldn't say those three words he was dying to hear, not even now, not even after ten years or better, together.

He now however, especially lately, got the distinct feeling that she was holding something back, hiding something.

He knew, of course, that it was probably his own guilty conscience, but that didn't matter.

He had to get the doubts out of her head before he lost her. He couldn't bare to lose her, even if it meant giving up the lust, the fire and the passion he felt for the lithe, older, sexier and much more sophisticated Lithuanian diva, Aksana.

Brianna was his safety net, she was like a lighthouse in a stormy sea for the Intercontinental Champion, being with her made sense, it fit. She got him, she made him happy, and he could only hope that he could do the same for her.

"What's with you?" he asked as he turned her, sat her on the very edge of the bathroom counter in their shared hotel room.

"Nothing, it's just.." Brianna said as she muttered quietly, "Forget it."

"No, something's bothering you, baby, talk to me.. hey, don't look down.." Curtis said as he tilted her chin up, made her look at him and waited.

"It's nothing, Joe.. Look, I've gotta go.. I need to... I need to think." Brianna said as she gave him a kiss, trying to ignore the way her stomach churned bitterly as she did so, then walked out of the hotel room.

Curtis flopped onto his back, his arms behind his head as his situation hit him full force.. He'd been forced into asking Brianna something that should have been asked long ago, just because if he didn't, then he'd lose her for good because the 'other woman' in all this, Sheamus' girlfriend, Aksana, had gotten it into her head that she was telling Bria about them if he didn't end things with Brianna and be with her.

To top it off, Aksana was pregnant, nobody knew yet, not even Sheamus, really, Curtis suspected, and she was firmly insisting that they belonged together.. That Sheamus and Bria were just their way of 'making do' respectively.

He groaned as the raven haired vixen's words from the night before came back to haunt him yet again. "Fuck my life right now.. What have I done?" he muttered as he raked his hands through his hair, stood to pace the hotel room while lost in thought..

x.x

"If you were smart, Curtis, you'd stop stringing her along.. You know you're happier with me."

"Whoa.. I never said anything about me and you.. Besides, don't you have Sheamus? What's going on there?"

"Sheamus.. He bores me.. He's not as exciting as he used to be. If you don't do something, Curtis, I will."

"Aksana, don't do this.. Don't mess things up with me and Bria."

"It's out of my hands." the raven haired Lithuanian said blithely as she walked away, smirking to herself. One way or another, she'd get what she wanted, just like every other time she wanted something.

x.x

- Black Crowes, Seeing Things (For The First Time )

Sheamus stood in the hotel room he was sharing with his offscreen girlfriend and fellow wrestler, Aksana, watching her as she got ready for some radio interview she had later in the afternoon.

And as he watched her, he kept thinking about what he'd walked in on, what he'd seen with his own two eyes, the night before, while backstage at the arena..

x.x

The Irishman was exhausted. All that he wanted right now, post match, was to walk into his girlfriend's private backstage area and hold her.

Maybe holding her would do what it used to do, and spark something they'd been missing for a few months now.. She barely touched him anymore, and he couldn't exactly claim to be a saint, either, because lately, he'd started to think that maybe they were reaching the end of their relationship..

Instead, as he turned the corner, he happened to catch Curtis Axle sneaking into her dressing room, then seconds later, the door opened and a red silk bra hung from the doorway. The Irishman growled to himself, then paced a moment.

He'd been telling himself that Aksana wasn't as affectionate towards him anymore lately, because she was or might be pregnant, which she had no idea he knew, even, he'd been waiting patiently on her to tell him for over two weeks now, but judging by what he'd just seen, the way they (Aksana and Curtis )couldn't keep their hands off of one another, or their lips, and their clothes just didn't seem to come off fast enough, well..

It was quite obvious that the Irishman had been completely and totally wrong.

Something told him to keep what he'd seen to himself for the moment, maybe discuss it privately with her, later.

x.x

Her french manicured nails snapping in front of his face brought him back out of his thoughts and he looked at her, he really looked at her.. The fact that she could hide these two things from him, well, it made the man wonder..

Did she ever really love him? Even a little?

"I asked you, love, what's wrong today? You look a little moody."

"Nothing, Aksana, lass." he lied as he put his arms around her, noticing the wintry chill that seemed to radiate off of her lately, really noticing it as if it were the first time..

She sighed and bit her lip as she turned to face him, giving him a dutiful kiss. She wanted to love him, she really did, but she felt nothing for him lately.

Nothing like the fire she felt in Curtis' arms. Nothing like the heat and the passion in their kisses or the way they couldn't keep their hands off of one another.

But she couldn't just walk away from the 2 years she'd spent with Sheamus, because he was a good man.

Just it seemed like lately, she just didn't want him anymore, he didn't light her fire anymore.. And it'd been through this realization that had lead her to Curtis Axel's arms.

Their first time had been purely by accident, but since then, whenever they were together, it seemed like it felt better every single time they made love.

Sheamus, of course, was an amazing lover, and he was nothing if not one of the best men she'd ever been with, it's just.. he lacked passion and fire.. Or rather, when she was with him, those were the two things that were amiss.

And those were two things that the raven haired diva wasn't prepared to live without.

Their eyes met in the mirror, and she sighed as she turned, putting her arms around his neck as she looked up into his eyes.

Her eyes widened when he stepped back and looked at her for a moment, and she couldn't read his mind, she couldn't tell what he was thinking just by looking into those gorgeous eyes of his like she normally did.

"Ah'm gonna go for a walk, lass." he muttered casually, as he raked his hand through his still sleep mussed ginger hair before sliding on his jacket, grabbing his keycard and giving her a quick peck on the lips that was nothing like the kisses he normally gave her.

He just couldn't, not right now, not with what he'd seen the night before burned so vividly into his brain. Not with knowing that if she were pregnant, the baby was most likely not his, because it seemed like lately, over the course of the past few months, Aksana found more and more excuses to be away from him, as opposed to with him.

x.x

I used to dream
Of better days that never came
Sorry ain't nothin' to me
I'm gone and that's the way it must be
So please I've done my time
Lovin' you is such a crime
You won't fine me down on, on my knees
Won't fine me over backwards baby

- The Black Crowes, Seeing Things (For The First Time)

x.x

Brianna wiped at her eyes as she bit her full lower lip, raked her hand through long and thick, wavy dark brown hair still dampened from a shower she'd had almost immediately after tentatively making love to Curtis.

She'd spent the vast majority of it, imagining it was Sheamus, maybe it was her way of getting revenge for both of them, the wronged parties in this perpetually fucked situation they were all four currently involved in.

Or maybe, it was her subconscious, acting on feelings she'd had for the Irishman about three years ago (before Sheamus and Aksana began dating), triggered when she and Curtis had broken up for a week.

She'd never really gotten Sheamus off of her mind, come to think of it.

And she often found herself wondering, what if she'd actually shown up at his hotel room that night, instead of taking Curtis back?

What if she'd given in to every single overwhelming emotion, and the passion, the lust that Sheamus made her feel when they'd kissed that night, when he'd held her in his arms, her body flush with his as they danced to every slow song that someone played on the ancient jukebox of the hotel bar?

And that's when she began to realize that maybe this situation was just as much her fault as it was Aksana's and Curtis'.

Her eyes caught on the engagement ring on her hand and she rolled her eyes as she took it off, shoved it into her pocket. She didn't want to think about her deteriorating relationship right now, she didn't actually want to think about anything, yet she found herself doing that very thing, her mind going back to that one or two weeks she'd had with the Irishman in question.

And how very different she felt with him, than when she was with Curtis.

She also had to wonder why she'd even said yes to him, why she'd told him she'd marry him when he asked the night before, given what she suspected about him and Aksana?

"What the hell have I done? I don't.. No, I cannot say that. I love him, just not like I thought?" she admitted internally, then bit her lower lip, frowning at her predicament, frowning when of course, her memory of the night she had her own run in with Sheamus came floating to the surface.

Even now, just thinking about it, she could feel his large rough hands all over her small delicate body, she could taste the Guiness on his lips as he kissed her, she could smell the cologne he was wearing that night, she could hear the words he'd told her to start it all that night..

And the confusion at the contrasting feelings she felt with either male had her at her wits end, especially as she sat down on the floor of the elevator and thought about the night in question...

x.x

She and Curtis just couldn't stop fighting, they needed the time apart. She blinked back the tears as she walked into the hotel bar and slid on a stool.

The voice spoke up from next to her, almost a whisper, "Yeh deserve better, lass." Sheamus had told her as he looked at her with tender concern.

He'd seen her around at a few shows, seen her with Axel (or McGillicutty as he was known then) so he knew that she was seeing the man.

However, it didn't stop his head from turning when she walked into a room. And he'd caught her staring back at him earlier tonight, she'd even given a slight wink in his direction.

Rumor going around was that she and Axel were broken up right now, and Sheamus found himself considering making a move. Truthfully, he'd followed her into the hotel bar to attempt that very thing.

"He's not always like that." Brianna said quietly as she found herself getting lost in his eyes. She didn't even realize it until he gave a chuckle, snapped his fingers in front of her face and asked, "Are yeh alright?"

"Yes. Wait, no. Ughh, I don't know, it's just.." Brianna said as she bit her lower lip, trying to figure out what to even say to describe what she and Curtis were going through lately.

"Dance with me?" he asked firmly as she could do nothing but nod and let him pull her off the stool, pull her body close to his.

It seemed like time froze, like the room and everything in it fell away, and she realized with shocking clarity that she hadn't felt this with Curtis, well, she hadn't ever felt it with him.

Her knees were weak, her throat was dry, she felt like she was on fire from the inside.

They danced every slow dance that night, and when Natalya and Tyson Kidd found her, she was molded to Sheamus, the pair were in a very passionate and heated kissing session.

He'd given her his hotel room number, but she never showed up, because maybe an hour after she'd left the hotel bar, and went up to her own room, Curtis showed up with flowers and a panda bear stuffed animal, and he'd apologized, they'd talked about everything, and she'd realized just how much she missed him.. Or thought she missed him at least..

x.x

A throat clearing from above had her looking up, and she bit her lip as she found herself now sharing an elevator with the very man who's face she'd pictured quite a few times since their run in 3 years ago.

Sheamus stood there, studying the brunette female quietly, with mild amusement as she sat on the floor of the elevator, apparently lost in thought.

"Are yeh alright, lass?"

"Not really." Brianna admitted as she looked up a little, licking her lips, standing.

"Me either." he murmured as he asked, "Wot floor?"

"The lobby. I need a drink, nothing like my silly soda to put things into perspective for me." Brianna said as Sheamus smiled a little, nodded, his mind turning to the night he'd almost had her for himself.

x.x

'Yeh deserve better, lass.' he'd stated matter of factly as he slid up next to her at the crowded hotel bar. He knew as soon as he'd gotten close to her like this, he had to have her. He realized that yes, she'd most likely go right back to Curtis Axel, but at least he could have her for himself for one night.. Or he could damn sure try.

"He's not always like that. It's just.." the brunette bombshell cut him off as she looked at him, licked her full pink lips. He nodded and sipped his Guiness as he stated again, "Excuses. All of et." dismissively.

She muttered something, and he heard her sniffling a little. Worried that he'd upset her, he decided to turn the conversation to more neutral territory, and slamming back the rest of his Guiness, he turned to her and asked calmly, "Want to dance, lass?" motioning to the floor.

She bit her lip, staring at him a moment before nodding yes, and letting him pull her off the stool, pull her small curvy and soft fram against him. He held her against him tightly, almost in both a possessive and protective way, and they made their way to the backmost part of the hotel bar, where he looked at her and shook his head, smiling a little.

"What?"

"Yeh are beautiful, lass. Ah don't see how yeh wind up with the likes of him." Sheamus muttered with his lips next to her neck as he stroked her cheek gently.

"I am not." Brianna said as she leaned against him. When he pulled her in for a kiss, she didn't object, in fact, she kissed back with such a raw passion and energy that he contemplated carrying her right out of the hotel bar, right then and there.

Instead, he was a gentleman and when her friends came to find her, he slid his room number into her hand, written on a bar napkin.

When she didn't show up, he'd tried his best to forget their little encounter, and when he'd been hooked a few weeks later by Aksana, he thought he was really and truly finally going to be happy..

x.x

"So, what's got you out and on the meander tonight?" Brianna asked, if nothing more than to ease the heavy tension in the air, distract herself from everything that'd been on her mind previously, before he entered the elevator.

The Irishman shrugged as he raked his hand over his hair and then said "Just thinking, really. Needed a drink. Needed to get away from Aksana."

Brianna bit her lip at the mention of Aksana's name. She didn't want to be the one who was the back biter in this situation, she wasn't going to be that girl, the one who informed Sheamus that Aksana, well.. She was screwing around on him, and most likely pregnant.

By the man she'd just stupidly and for unknown reasons why, when she really thought about it, agreed to marry.

Her cell phone vibrated and she growled to herself as she noticed it was Curtis calling. She scowled at the phone, a gesture that didn't go amiss with Sheamus and he asked in concern, "Are yeh alright?"

"Yeah, it's just.. Nothing, forget it." Brianna started, the words threatening to spill out at any second.

She noticed then that somehow, in the smallness of the elevator, they'd migrated mere inches away from one another, and the room felt like a sauna or a hot tub turned up full blast.

She shrugged off her jacket and then said "Is it hot in here to you or?"

Sheamus nodded as he studied her intently. No, he'd never really gotten that one night he'd danced with her, talked to her, kissed her, held her out of his mind.

"It is." he murmured, as he shrugged out of his own jacket, draped it over his shoulder casually. The elevator came to a stop unexpectedly, and he realized that her hand was on the brake.

"Wot did yeh do that for, lass?" he asked in curiousity as she turned to look at him, muttering things to herself, under her breath before she finally cleared her throat and said "I'm leaving Curtis."

'Ahh. So she caught the two of 'em going at it, almost as naked as a jaybird backstage too.'

He nodded and then thought for a moment as he said quietly, "Aksana.. She's been going behind my back for a while now.. And she's been keeping something from me."

Their eyes met and Brianna sighed as she looked down at her hands and said quietly, "I know. She's been screwing Curtis. I saw them both last night, backstage. And the worst of it, is he asked me to marry him.. And for some stupid reason, I said yes."

"Yeh deserve better, lass."

"And so do you, Sheamus." Brianna admitted, noticing that she didn't automatically jump to her fiancee's defense this time. She sighed as she looked at her hand and muttered, "Guess it's really over now. Whatever we had then is gone. Or maybe I imagined us ever having anything, I mean.."

"What, lass?"

"Nothing, it's nothing, forget it."

"That night, in the bar.." he ventured, as she bit her lip, her back stiffening a little as she kept her gaze down. She couldn't look at him right now, or else he'd see it in her eyes, she feared.

He smirked to himself a little. Her lack of a reaction told him everything he needed to know. He moved closer and clearing his throat he said quietly, "Do you ever wonder what might of happened if you'd come to my room that night?"

He was just curious, he wasn't sure why he asked, or why he added seconds later, "Because I do."

Hearing him say that, Brianna gasped as she said quietly, almost timidly, "I do actually.. But.."

"But what, lass?"

She bit her lower lip and looked at him as she let her hand off of the brake and the elevator roared to life, dinging as it stopped at the hotel's lobby floor.

The two of them got off, walked into the bar together silently, sat down at a back table..

x.x

He looked at his cell phone as the 4th call of the hour to Brianna's cell went ignored. Biting his lower lip, he groaned as he looked at himself in the mirror.

"I need to face it. Things with she and I have been dead for years now, we should have called it quits a long time ago. The only reason we're still hanging on is because we're both too scared to be without each other." he muttered as he splashed cold water from the bathroom sink onto his face.

He got this sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that she somehow knew about his thing on the side with Aksana. He didn't want to lose her, but he couldn't stomach being with her anymore either so currently, the male was in a bit of a pickle, emotionally.

And the worst of it was that he wasn't even sure if he really loved Aksana, or if it was just because she was something new, something exciting.

And what made this even worse, was that apparently, Aksana had taken another EPT, just an hour ago, when Sheamus finally left her hotel room, and it was confirmed. She was pregnant.

Six false positives would be a little out there, oddswise. She was going to a hospital monday to find out for certain, but somehow, the male just got this feeling that she was pregnant.. And she was pregnant with his child, which was not how he'd pictured his life turning out when he'd began dating Brianna, back in high school.

His cell phone rang and he heard Aksana's thick accent, heard her sniffling and said quietly, "You can come up. For some reason, Brianna couldn't get out of here fast enough today."

"And neither could Sheamus." Aksana said as she sniffled a little and then stood, pacing a moment as she grabbed her clothes, got dressed quickly. Her heart began to race, as it always did when she was going to see Curtis.

It never really raced for Sheamus.

Not anymore, at least, not in a long time, it hadn't.

She found herself standing in front of his hotel room door moments later, and as soon as it opened, he pulled her inside, started to kiss her, his hands starting to wander slowly.

"We really shouldn't be doing this.." both of them murmured as the door to the hotel room shut after Curtis hung a Do Not Disturb sign on the knob.

x.x

The slow song started to play about the 3rd shot of tequila that Brianna had taken. Neither she nor Sheamus had spoken, but she hadn't protested when he pulled her off of the barstool she sat on, in front of him, from where he stood behind her, and carried her on his back out onto the floor.

Again, as it had that night 3 years prior, the room just sort of fell away. She leaned against him and looked up at him, biting her lower lip for a moment.

If he gave her his room number tonight, she wasn't going to back out. She'd made her mind up about this already. It sickened her that she could even consider doing this behind Curtis' back, but hey..

He and Aksana were leaving her not a lot of options.

Sheamus looked down at her and leaning down, he crashed his lips onto hers as he crushed her against him, his hands roaming down her sides, stopping on her hips.

"Getting kind of crowded in here."

"I noticed." she muttered breathlessly as her arms went up, around his neck, her hand raked through his ginger, spiky hair and he let out a low toned and throaty growl.

"Let's get outta here." he muttered as she let him lead her out of the hotel bar and back to his hotel room.

Was it wrong? Yes.

Were they both hurt by what they knew to be true right now, about their respective partners? You bet.

But there was something else at play, even now they could sort of sense it, though neither of them actually said.

It'd been building slowly for over 3 years, if one really looked at them when they interacted backstage, the little that they did, and they really tried to analyze the pair, they'd quickly see that something was bound to happen between them.

All it would take was that one push.

He kicked at the hotel room door and picked her up, carrying her into the room, shutting it firmly behind him, as he put a do not disturb sign on the door outside, locked the door firmly behind him.

"We shouldn't be doing this.. Two wrongs don't ever make anything right." both of them said as they began to kiss one another..

x.x

After that night, for a short time, Brianna went back to him and Sheamus kept what he knew about Aksana to himself. Neither of them were really sure why they stayed with their respective partners, nor were they sure why they couldn't stop sneaking away to see one another.

It'd been a month or so by this point, and lately, Brianna had just plain gotten tired of hiding her own little affair from Curtis.

Sheamus had also gotten tired of the running around. Little did either of them realize that everything was about to come to light.

Brianna walked into the arena, scanning the crowded backstage area for Sheamus and for Curtis.

She'd just taken a step in Curtis' direction, she'd seen him coming out of catering, but Sheamus spotted her, and pulled her back into a darkened corner, began to assault her lips with his passionately as he muttered, " Ah have missed you. Have I told you I love you?"

"And I've missed you. And back at you, Sheamus." she muttered, the look in his eyes when she couldn't say she loved him, yet again hurting a little. She knew it bothered him, but he wasn't trying to rush her, this was a delicate situation they'd gotten themselves in, after all.

Sheamus looked at her as she again faltered when he openly admitted that he loved her. He was wary, because naturally, Aksana, well.. She'd claimed to love him, but she'd betrayed him, was still betraying him even now.

And Brianna, in the few months they'd been seeing each other behind their significant other's backs.. he'd fallen for her, he thought the feeling was mutual, but when he finally got up the guts to say those three words to her, she'd simply replied with "Back at you, baby." and a passionate kiss.

He found himself wondering why she couldn't just tell him whether she really loved him or not. He'd asked her once, she'd told him about her parents divorce, about all of the times her father cheated on her mother, all of the things her parents did to one another under the guise of 'love.'

But she also told him that she couldn't say it until she was absolutely sure she meant it and that had him up in arms.

He shoved the worry from his mind and they continued to kiss, the kisses growing increasingly urgent, completely oblivious to having anyone see them until it happened..

A gasp came from behind them and Brianna heard Curtis growl as he asked, "What the fuck? Bria?"

"Sheamus?" Aksana asked as she felt her stomach twisting in knots.

The pair stopped kissing and looked at their respective partners and then each other, then back again. The air around the group filled with tension as Brianna tried to think of anything to say currently.

x.x

I find it hard to she'd a tear
You brought it all on yourself my dear
Wrong, yes I may be
Don't leave a light on for me
'Cause I ain't comin' home

- The Black Crowes, Seeing Things (For The First Time)

x.x

"How long has this been going on?" Curtis demanded as Aksana fixed her eyes on Sheamus who still had his arms around Brianna. "How long, Sheamus?"

Brianna smirked as she slid her hand into her pocket and then said calmly, "Here, Joe. This belongs to her, not me."

"Whoa, wait, babe."

Her eyes shot back to Sheamus, who was standing there quietly. She bit her lip nervously, wondering if he were going to say anything, if this had all just been some plan he had to get back at Aksana for betraying him.

Sheamus watched her give the ring back, finally. The very thing he'd been waiting for for over a month now, the moment he'd wanted was finally here.

He saw the fear in her eyes as she looked at him and smirking, he spoke up and said "Aksana, how long this has been going on, its' really none of your business, now is it?"

Brianna breathed in a little as Sheamus began to speak up. She'd been afraid for a moment that her finally letting herself love someone for the first time ever, she realized now that she only thought she loved Joe, she only clung to him because he'd been there for her through some of the worst parts of her life and she felt like she owed him.

It'd taken him cheating on her, ripping out her heart to make her realize that she hadn't really loved him.

It'd taken her a little longer to realize she really loved Sheamus, however.

Curtis moved to attack Sheamus in anger and Brianna, surprising both herself and Sheamus stepped between the two men as she said calmly, "Oh no the hell you don't. I'm not about to let you hurt him. Don't blame him because I figured out what you and that... that thing there, Aksana, were doing behind my back.. Let me ask you something, Joe.."

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever really loved anyone?"

"What do you mean?"

"Think about her, then think about me."

He paused a moment, pondering the question she'd asked. He bit his lip and looked at her, then at Sheamus, growling at Sheamus.

If he really thought about it, at one point in time, he might have loved her.. But lately, he knew for sure that he loved Aksana now. With everything in him, with his entire heart.

He stepped back and then he looked at her, then the ring she was still holding out to him.

He took the ring and then asked, "What about you?"

Brianna took a deep breath.. If she did this, if she finally said those three words, it would only hurt Curtis, they'd been through everything together, it wouldn't be fair to him.. Because she wouldn't be saying them to him.. She'd be saying them to Sheamus.

"Answer me, Bria."

"You don't want me to do that, Joe." Brianna said quietly as she looked from him to Sheamus and bit her lower lip. If she answered him, that not only changed everything between herself and Sheamus, it'd also wind up hurting Curtis, that's the last thing Brianna wanted to do, even though she'd been hurt time and time again since she'd learnt a few months ago that he was seeing Aksana behind her back.

Sheamus didn't realize it, but he was actually standing there holding his breath, waiting on an answer, wondering what her answer would be. He'd just turned to walk away when he heard her take a deep breath and give her answer. He paused in the doorway, stunned to disbelief. Was she finally telling him she loved him?

"Oh yes, Bria, I do."

"Okay, fine. Yes, I have been in love.. I am in love actually. With Sheamus." Brianna said as she turned to Sheamus and bit her lip as she looked up at him, leaning against him cautiously.

Sheamus smiled brightly and Aksana cleared her throat. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. If yeh hadn't done this to me, I never would have figured out we were all wrong for each other."

Aksana nodded and then said quietly, "It wasn't you, it was me."

This left Brianna and Curtis to say their own goodbyes. He looked at her and said quietly, "We should have done this a long time ago."

"I hate it came down to this, Joe and for what it's worth, I'm sorry I couldn't love you. I hope you and Aksana are happy together, I really mean that."

"I think we will be. If the Irishman hurts you, we're still friends, I'll kick his ass."

Brianna laughed and gave Sheamus a smile as she looked back at Curtis and shaking her head she said quietly, "I hope that never has to happen. Something tells me everything's finally right this time."

She walked back over to Sheamus and looked up at him as she asked quietly, "So..."

"Yeah, lass?"

"I meant it.. I'm just sorry it took me so long to say it back."

"It's okay, lass." Sheamus said as he held her close to him, smiled to himself.

x.x

'Cause I'm seeing things for the first time
I'm seeing things for the first time, oh yeah
I'm seeing things for the first time
In my life, in my life

- the black crowes, Seeing Things ( For The First Time )

x.x

/FIN\\

( Smallish Authors Note: I've never written a one shot before, guys.. And I've never written anything with Sheamus in it. Hope this doesn't suck royally. I almost went with a much more sad ending, but I couldn't do it to my fella. So if it's too sappy, sorry. Anyway, enjoy!)