A/N: Another one-shot. I promise that my series will get updated eventually. I'm hoping to get some one-shots out every once in a while to make up for lost time. So look forward to the series updates sometime around the holidays. This particular story was based on the song " You Found me" by The Fray. If you haven't heard it, I recommend you go listen to it. Special thanks to Adeeba (AdeebaLovesHHH) for being my lovely beta. As always, please remember to leave me a review at the bottom of the page, it let's me know you want more stories, more often. Enjoy!
It was Monday night and normally, Stephanie McMahon loved being at Raw, but tonight, all she wanted was to go home. Everything was going just as planned, that it, at the beginning of the night. Then, somewhere along the lines, everything flipped and it seemed everything was spiraling out of control at this point.
Hunter had stormed out at as soon as he saw that Ryback turned on the Authority. All she could hope for at this point, was for her husband to come back so they could leave the area. God knows that they both need to get out of here before something happens that one of them will regret.
*knock* *knock* *knock*
"Come in," snapped Stephanie, annoyed that someone would even bother to come to her at this point in the night.
She heard the door open and close. She turned around to face John Cena, leader of the small group that hope and pray that she will be gone come Survivor Series.
"Stephanie," John greeted, noting her angry facial expression.
"Why are you here?" she responded, glaring at him.
John smirked, "Funny, I was just about to ask you the same question."
"What do you mean?"
To him, this was his last attempt to split up the Authority before the pay-per-view. He knew that Hunter was a lost cause due to the resent power trip but if he could remind Stephanie of what it felt like to be the center of attention, maybe she would back out of the group causing it to collapse on itself.
"I mean, why are you here? Why the Authority?" said John, starting to get fired up, "Don't you miss the cheers, the crowd chanting your name?! Don't you miss fighting for something you actually believe in?!"
Stephanie remained silent for a moment, soaking up what he had just asked. Sure she missed the cheers and the applause of the crowd. But everything comes with a price. For her, that was price was just too damn high.
She scoffed, "Do I miss the cheers? No. I don't miss them and I don't miss everything I had to go through to get them."
"Sure, you go through some rough patches, but the WWE universe helps you through that. Makes the pain easier to bare."
Stephanie turned her back, hoping the conversation would end and John would go away.
Those hopes were soon crushed when John continued on, "So this is better, hm? Playing lap dog to the higher-ups instead of doing what's right?"
John waited for her to turn around and answer him, but she remained with her back to him.
He signed, "Fine. I was just trying to help you get back to where you want to be. I guess I waited too long. You no longer have the desire to be good anymore."
As he turned for the door, Stephanie spun around with pure hatred in her eyes, "Be good?! Do the right thing?! When has doing the right thing ever got me in life?! Oh, that's right, it got me broken down in that ring with men three times my size! It got me broken ribs one week and choking to death the next! That's where doing the right thing got me! And all for what? To have the one thing in my life that I could count on, my career, ripped out from under me. No amount of applause with ever bring that back!"
"I know the feeling…"
Stephanie cut him off, "No, you don't! Until you have to face the one person you thought would never in a million years lay a hand on you in a match with your own mother watching you and your father tear each other apart at ringside, you don't even have the slightest idea of what it feels like!"
A now aggravated John got in her face, "Let me guess, you were alone on that, too? I think that's the saddest part of your whole story. There was one person you thought was going to save you right? I can guarantee you this, Stephanie, he won't be there the next time either."
John backed up and waited for her reaction. When she just continued to glare at him with loathing, he decided this would be the best time to leave. Maybe there was still some good in her, but you would never know it because she built up this wall to protect whatever was left.
John left her with a spark of doubt. What if what her father was cooking up now would lead to all that happening again. Would she be alone this time as well?
Stephanie walked over the couch and sat down with a huff. John was right. She fought every week with the hopes that her then ex-husband would come and save her. She was even stupid enough to think that all the way up until her loss at No Mercy. That will always be the nagging question in the back of her mind….Where had he been?
"Are you okay?"
She looked up to see that her husband had made his way back to their make-shift office.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" she responded as he sat down next to her.
He turned to her and grabbed her hands, "Because I came in the room and stood in front of you for a few minutes and you still hadn't noticed me. Now, do you want to tell me what's wrong with you or are you going to lie to me again?"
Stephanie shook off his hands and stood up, "I just have a lot on my mind right now."
Hunter watched as she paced in front of him, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Where were you?"
He sighed, "I stepped out to sort out something's before…"
"No!" She stopped pacing and stood in front of him, "Where were you when everything in my life was falling apart?!"
Standing up with a look on his face that was a mix of confusion and concern, Hunter responded, "I've always been with you."
Stephanie gave out a frustrated groan and began passing again.
"I don't understand," Hunter said becoming frustrated as well.
"I was alone," she started mumbling, "I was completely alone. No one came to save me. I was beaten down and broken every week. Still, no one came!"
She began to get louder as she rambled on, "Where were you?! I wanted! Every week, I waited! Still, I was left alone!"
He watched as she paced back and forth, almost screaming at him for some unknown reason. At the moment, she was just rambling non-sense. She was even beginning to cry at this point.
Still concerned he responded, "Steph…"
"Where were you?!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" He finally shouted at her.
She stopped pacing and looked at him, "….I wouldn't expect you to remember."
She had stopped yelling but the tears still continued to flow.
"I was so lost, so hurt, so…insecure. There was a new obstacle every time I would make just a little progress. I guess that's how he finally broke me….I don't think I'll ever get back to who I was before."
It finally hit him. It was easy to forget because he never was there. But she was and he knew that she relived that nightmare every time her father would raise his voice to her. She would always go back to that dark place where there was nobody but her and Vince McMahon in that ring. He couldn't even imagine what she went through that year. Not just the physical pain, but the emotional scars she would bare forever.
The shock of the situation hit him and he sat back down. What would he say now? What could he say? Nothing he could do at this point would make up for why he wasn't there. No excuse in the world would be justifiable.
"I was so afraid and the one person I knew, deep down in my heart, would save me from that hell…was you. But you couldn't care enough to shop up." She snapped.
He continued to sit there in silence.
"Hell! I even called you, just to hear your voice again, but you never answered!" she cried.
Still silence.
"Just like now." She left out a distressed sigh and turned to leave.
As she reached for the handle, she heard a defeated voice.
"Don't go."
Stephanie gave the man enough respect to stop but couldn't bring herself to turn around and face him in fear that she would break down even more.
Hunter, however, finally got up off the couch and began to walk over to her.
"You have no idea how much I wanted to be at Smackdown every damn week to protect you. You have no idea had badly I wanted to rip your dad's head off."
She could tell by the slight wave in his voice that he was close to tears.
"The only thing I regret in my life is that I wasn't there for you when you needed me. I wanted to so bad but Rick kept reminding me about when you lied about the pregnancy and how the physical pain you were feeling then couldn't even compare to the emotional pain that I had felt when you lied to me."
Stephanie stiffened a little when he brought up the "little white lie" she told so many years ago.
He noticed this, yet still continued to talk to her back, "I wanted to be with you every single day and yet I continued to try to keep myself away. I tried alcohol, starting meaningless feuds, I even focused solely on the belt to keep my mind off of you. Nothing worked, though. Towards the end, I couldn't even sleep because every dream was about you and I just couldn't take it."
"Stephanie, without you, I am nothing. I know you carried around that pain with you all this years but also know that I've carried guilt over every decision I made when we were separated. Please don't leave me now."
Stephanie could hear the sobs now. She finally turned around to face him. The first thing she noticed was that his face was now streaked with tear, matching her face. Though, even after everything he had said, she still had doubt in the back of her mind.
"My biggest fear is that I'll be left to face everything alone again." She confessed.
Hunter moved closer and began to rub her shoulders to comfort her, "I promise you, I will never let anything or anyone hurt you ever again."
She looked up at him, "Don't make promises you can't keep."
He finally pulled her in for an embrace, rubbing her back and kissing her reassuringly on the forehead, "I don't."