Title: You Can Only Blame Me
Summary: Shawn and Hunter have a heart to heart about Shawn's retirement.
Warnings: Set in the future where HBK's retired. The ending is lame.
The evening's party atmosphere was finally starting to die down.
Guests started to leave, the noise lessened. Things began to return to normal. Spotting one of his guests sat alone, he made his way over to the younger man.
"What are you still doing here?" He asked.
Shawn looked up at the other man, surprised he was so coherent for the amount of partying he seemed to be doing. "Oh, is the party over? I'll get going." He stood up, only to have Ric put his hand on his shoulder.
"I'm never gonna throw you out, man. I just thought you'd be one of the early birds to leave."
"Well you don't have a birthday everyday. So if I was going to come out here, I thought I'd at least make it worth my while." Shawn smiled, but it never reached his eyes. Not that Ric noticed.
"Good point. I'm gonna go mingle. Don't leave without saying bye to me." He said as he lost himself at the bar with the heavier drinkers.
When it came time to leave, he didn't say bye.
And he wasn't even missed.
**
The knock on the door startled him awake. He took a second to shake of the sleep that still hung over him before he got off the bed and made his way over to the door.
The man stood there surprised him. "What are you doing here?" He asked.
"Ric called. He was worried about you."
"Why?" Shawn asked, retreating from the door and going back to the bed.
"He said you were sat alone most of the party and then just disappeared without saying bye."
"I wasn't in the mood to talk." Shawn said. "And he was at the bar with a group of friends, I didn't wanna interrupt."
"Don't you think that maybe he considers you a friend too and wouldn't care if you interrupted?" Shawn only shrugged in response. "He said he called you too. You're phone broke or what?" Hunter asked, seeing it on top of the chest of drawers.
"Oh, yeah I left it on silent." Shawn remembered.
Hunter picked it up and checked it. "Shawn, you got like 10 missed calls on here." Hunter said. "Ric, home, Rebecca. There's texts here too. What's going on?"
"Nothing, I just didn't have my phone on. I'll call back when you're gone."
"The first call was hours before Ric's party started." Hunter said.
"So what, I couldn't possibly have had it on silent back then?" Shawn defended.
"Okay, so maybe I'll just take a look and see what Rebecca's been texting you then, huh?"
"That's personal." Shawn said, anger flaring as he got up to retrieve his phone from the younger man. Hunter didn't try and fight it, he let Shawn snatch it right off of him. He watched Shawn carefully for his reaction. Saw a slight sense of relief that Hunter hadn't opened his messages, even though he'd never had any intention of doing it.
Shawn played with his phone, opening and reading the messages that had been left for him. Hunter tried to process the feelings that Shawn was going through, but he was good at keeping them secret when he wanted to.
"You ever going to tell me what's the matter with you or do I have to go psychic?" Hunter pushed.
"I don't know where I fit in any more." Shawn said, climbing back on the bed, seeking comfort from the warm duvet, even if he didn't realise he was doing it.
Hunter looked confused by the statement. "Okay, you might have to break that down a little bit more for me, 'cause all I'm getting now is 'Wha?'."
"At home."
"How can you not know. You're husband and father." Hunter said. He sat on the bed, confused by Shawn's apparent pain at his role in his families life.
"I don't feel like it."
"But you are."
Shawn wore a look that made it clear that Hunter had no idea what he was talking about and where he came from. "Doesn't change how I feel."
"Well, why? What's so weird?"
"Kids are at school all the time, Rebecca's busy with her business and I'm just... there. Nothing to do."
"There must be things you can do to help Rebecca?" Hunter said.
"She leaves the house immaculate, she's got into the swing of her work. Nothing for me to do."
"Well, what about the kids?"
"Well, yeah, I'm very important. I get to take them to and from school. I mean, it's tough, but I manage it every day."
"Okay. What about their homework?"
"Chey's is pretty basic, and I couldn't help Cam if he wanted me to." Hunter detected the slight hurt in Shawn's tone about Cameron. As he approached his teens, the youngster reached more and more for his independence. Something that Shawn did appreciate, but still felt snubbed by. It wasn't easy when your kids seemed to reject you, even if that wasn't really what they were doing. Hunter was grateful his girls were too small for that still.
"When Rebecca was home with them, she had a purpose. They were still kids, she still needed to care for them. And now I'm there, they don't need me."
"Of course they need you." Hunter chided. "Just not in the same, nurturing way. And they were right to have their mother there when they were younger. You don't think you can offer them anything? You've got experiences that Rebecca hasn't got. Especially when Cameron goes to High school."
Shawn looked doubtful still. "Maybe."
"No maybe. I'm always right, you know that." Hunter said, placing his hand on Shawn leg for the briefest of moments before removing it again. "Just call Rebecca back. Tell her you're sorry you didn't call back sooner and tell her what you've told me. She'll understand."
"You really think?" Shawn questioned.
"Undoubtedly. And if you get really bored, Vince'll find you a job again. Maybe the commissioner job's opened up again." Hunter joked.
Shawn smiled a little at that. "Thanks."
"No problem."