Fall for You
So this idea came to me when Ambrose gave his explanation of the back door to the Miz. I felt like he was hiding something. Hence this one-shot was born! Hope you like :)
Dean kept fighting, because that's what he always did. It didn't matter to him that he had about six or seven guys on him; he just kept trying to get to Seth. That backstabber. A coward. No. A traitor. Even when they roughly hauled him up off the ground, Dean was still trying to get loose. He wasn't going to go down without a fight.
He practically smiled when Triple H started to demand that the guys holding him take him outside. Didn't that idiot Triple H learn anything? He always had a way inside the arena. In fact, he had already planned for this eventuality tonight and had several ways in just in case he got thrown out more than once. Hey, he might be a lunatic but he was a controlled lunatic, which is what made him so dangerous. However, his grin turned to a frown when Stephanie showed up out of nowhere and started to scream out orders that actually made him a bit uncomfortable.
"No, no, no…put him in there! Put him in that closet!"
Closet! What? Dean barely had time to think when, all of a sudden, he found himself unceremoniously dumped onto the cold floor. "What are you doing?", Dean asked bewildered and somewhat dazed as the door got slammed shut in his face in response.
Glancing around quickly in shock, Dean realized that the Authority had indeed locked him in a small closet. Immediately Dean threw his body against the door. It wouldn't give. Dean tried again and again and again. He started to cry out in frustration as each knock to the door proved futile. It wasn't that Dean was just angry. No, he was out of his mind scared. He had never liked the feeling of being trapped with no way to escape. God knows he had enough of that during his childhood. Yelling incoherently Dean pounded on the door praying to God that by some miracle it would open. But it didn't, it just stood there silently mocking him.
Dean, trying desperately to distract himself, started kicking the door imagining that it was Seth he was doing it to. To Dean, this was another betrayal by Seth. He knew about Dean's fears. In the Shield, they had spent many days and nights talking about everything under the sun including their deep, dark fears. He remembers how when he finally spilled to Roman and Seth what his fear was that they didn't laugh. He had expected them to. I mean he was a grown man for crying out loud, he shouldn't be afraid of something so trivial as the feeling of being trapped. But they didn't, not then.
Now, Seth was probably laughing himself silly at Dean's predicament, Dean thought venomously. In fact, now that Dean thought about it, Seth had probably already told the Authority about his fears. It made sense. They had just the other day tied his hands together in order to get him under control, or so they said. Dean for his part had barely held it together when he had felt his wrists being restrained, it was the anger that he held towards Seth and the Authority that had kept him focused enough to not break down in panic.
He knew this was torture for him. Did he even care? Dean slumped down onto the ground, utterly spent. He tried to focus on his breathing as his anger faded and fear began to overtake his entire body. Evil flashbacks from his childhood came to the forefront of his mind. Dean let out a choked sob as he realized he truly was locked in and alone.
Seth, for his part, had watched this exchange between Triple H and Stephanie from the sideline. And if he was being honest with himself, he was torn. On one hand, he thought Dean had been taking his betrayal way too personally and had gotten to the point where he was fed up with Dean's antics. However, he knew that locking Dean in a closet was crossing a line especially when they had closed the door on him and he could hear Dean's frantic pounding on the door.
To a casual observer, it might have seemed like Dean was just living up to his lunatic fringe name but Seth knew better. He knew that Dean was terrified. And he felt guilty.
However, he still needed to play this smart, so after Triple H and Stephanie left the five or so security guards with strict orders to not open this door for anyone, Seth as casually as he could ambled past them and went around the corner. Seth who was always observant remembered that these sort of closets sometimes had a back door, he was hoping that was the case with this one.
Sure enough there was. Glancing around to make sure that no one saw him, Seth tried the door. It was locked. Cursing under his breath, Seth tried to think. Suddenly he had an idea. He only hoped Dean could hold on for that long. He knew from the one experience when Dean had accidentally locked himself into the hotel bathroom that Dean's panic attacks were not pretty.
Walking quickly and after sweet talking one of the many girl interns he got what he wanted, a hairpin. Practically running back to the door, because now Seth was really getting worried, he skillfully picked the lock and his heart practically broke at the sight of Dean.
Dean was curled up in a ball, shaking on the floor murmuring to himself. "Dean! Dean!", said Seth gently shaking his shoulders.
"M' sorry, sorry, sorry", said Dean in a mantra to himself still not recognizing Seth's presence.
"Dean! Come on man, snap out of it!" said Seth bringing his once best friend into a big bear hug.
"M'sorry," Dean let out with a sob and hugged Seth back so fiercely that Seth thought that perhaps Dean would never let him go.
"It's okay man. You're fine," said Seth as soothingly as possible, "I got you. The back door is open now. We can go whenever you want."
Dean let out a few choked sobs of relief as he started to become aware of his surroundings again and began to feel in control of his body. However, he was completely taken by surprise when he realized who had come to his rescue.
"Seth?", Dean looked up at him, puzzled beyond belief.
"Hey", said Seth as he helped Dean up to his feet. Dean was still pale and shaking but looking better from a minute before.
"Why?..", began Dean still too shaken to form much of a coherent thought.
"Because I guess I am not that big of an asshole," said Seth shrugging nonchalantly.
"Guess not," agreed Dean as he studied the floor. Seth could tell that Dean was embarrassed but choose not to comment on it instead the next thing out of his mouth was something that had been on his mind for a while now, something that he had been dying to say since the day he had proverbially stabbed his brothers in the back.
"And you're still my friend, even if I'm not yours anymore," said Seth now feeling self conscious as he finally voiced his feelings.
Dean looked up sharply at Seth as if he was seeing him for the very first time.
"Why?' Dean rasped out, studying Seth's face carefully as he still doubted the genuineness of Seth's words.
"Because a friend like you is impossible to find," said Seth with all sincerity hoping that Dean would believe him. Granted he had no reason to, but Seth could still hope.
A few minutes passed as both men stared at each other, each one trying to figure the other out. Finally, Dean shrugged his shoulders and said, "Damn right there's no one else like me out there."
Seth grinned at Dean. He felt like a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders.
Dean rolled his shoulders, back to his old self, "Come on now man we still have a show to put on. You know I'm not gonna go easy on you just cause we shared this little lifetime moment," said Dean gesturing between the two of them.
Seth smiled. Good ol'Dean, he thought to himself, he truly can bounce back from anything. "I wouldn't have it any other way," he shot back to Dean.
Dean nodded in approval of Seth's words and the two friends parted ways for now.
Please rate and review.
By the way, Dean does not have claustrophobia. His fear is cleithrophobia, at least in this story, which is the fear of feeling trapped. Just for your own information, if you want it :)