Chapter 1

Triple H stormed into his dressing room, punching the door open and causing Shawn Michaels to jump.

"Sheesh! What's with you?" Shawn asked as he held a hand to his chest, feeling his heart pound faster than normal.

He was met with a mumbled reply but Shawn was pretty certain that he heard a 'McMahon' in there somewhere.

"Did I hear McMahon in there?" he asked with a smirk.

"I wish I could wipe that arrogant smug look off his face!"

"Okay! You said his, so is it Vinnie Mac or the demon spawn?"

Paul smirked "I thought you called Steph the demon spawn?"

"Well technically they both are! Plus I can come up with far worse names for Steph!" Shawn replied with a scowl.

"Anyone would think it was you she divorced!"

"It's just so much more traumatic for the children!" Shawn teased as he pretended to cry.

"You're an idiot" Paul laughed

"Yeah but your no longer punching doors!" Shawn pointed out

"Good point"

"So…….What happened?" Shawn asked eagerly

"Shane and his plastic go daddy ho! That's what happened"

"I assume you mean Candice?" came a voice from the open dressing room door.

The two turned around and Shawn grinned like a Cheshire cat at the sight of his wife. Paul watched as his other best friend strolled across the room and stretched lazily like a cat before curling herself onto Shawn's lap.

"Tori don't start with this again!" Paul sighed

Tori looked over at him innocently "I didn't say a word!"

Paul sighed, Tori didn't need to say anything, he could read her face with ease, he'd known her that long!

Tori Michaels was what you could call 'the ultimate Diva' and a total legend in female wrestling! With her long brown hair, striking blue eyes and figure that looked like it belonged to someone ten years younger. She possessed some of presence that would cause people to stop and looked at her when she walked in a room. Shawn was one lucky man!

Now thirty three she'd joined the company at the age of seventeen as a valet for the Hart Foundation. That always made Paul laugh, Bret Hart brought her to the company and now she was married to Shawn Michaels! Needless to say that hadn't gone down very well with Bret especially as she was already married to Shawn at the Montreal incident. That was a whole other story though and Shawn and Tori and been to hell and back but they were still together and from what Paul could tell they were extremely happy, Tori had also joined them in DX. But more importantly Tori had been Paul's best friend since the day he arrived in the company they'd also had a 'sort of' fling back in the days when Shawn was 'off the rails' but they never talked about that.

"She's a talent less bimbo who is sleeping with the boss's son to get higher up in the business"

"Oh and no-one ever said anything similar about you now did they?" Tori replied sarcastically as she swept her hair into a ponytail.

"I'd be worried if they said he was sleeping with the bosses son" Shawn quipped as Paul glared at him.

Smirking at her husband Tori continued "Candice isn't that bad! Personally I don't know why she's with Shane"

Paul snorted "I just told you why!"

"Paul have you looked at the girl, she's hot! She doesn't need to sleep with Shane to get by here" Tori sighed

"Did you just call another girl hot? Cool!" Shawn grinned as Tori rolled her eyes.

"Then she's doing it for the money! As far as I'm concerned Candice doesn't deserve to be here, she knows squat about wrestling, prances around in a bikini and shows no respect to any of the guys unless she knows she can get them into bed!" Paul fumed unaware that Candice was stood in the hallway and had heard everything.


"Have you apologised to Candice yet?" Tori chased Paul down an arena corridor the following week. She'd seen Candice run past the dressing room door after Paul's little outburst and had wanted to slap him silly, she had no idea why he hated Candice so much, Candice seemed like a perfectly nice girl to Tori, other than for her taste in men!

"Tori…..Buzz off!" Paul snapped

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me"

"Yeah and now I'm gonna kick your ass" Tori replied before kicking Paul's leg from under him.

"What the hell!!!" Paul yelled as he hit the floor with a thud, Tori was as quick as a cat, you never ever see her coming!

"That's what you get for telling me to buzz off!" Tori smirked

"You'll pay for that later!"

"Whatever! Oh hey Candice!"

Paul rolled his eyes as he jumped up and watched as Tori looked at Candice and frowned,

"What happened?" Tori asked as she pulled Candice towards her and inspected her nose.

"Oh, it's from my match with Victoria last week" Candice replied quietly whilst eyeing Paul nervously.

"But your nose wasn't even bleeding after the match"

Candice just shrugged as Tori continued to inspect her broken nose.

"Are you sure that's how you did it?"

"Uh huh" Candice attempted to smile but it hurt her nose and she winced.

"You okay?" Tori asked worriedly

Before Candice could reply they heard Shane yelling at the other end of the hallway "Candice! I need you over here baby!"

Candice nodded at Tori quickly before hurrying over to Shane.

"Hmmmm" Tori sighed as she joined Paul in leaning against a lighting crate.

"What?"

"She seemed fine after her match with Victoria, a little groggy, but fine. I don't recall seeing a broken nose"

"Maybe your going senile in your old age" Paul teased and earned himself a slap on the arm.

"Don't insult yourself! Your older than me remember?"

"Yeah but I'm not the one going senile! Look she said she broke it in her match and quite frankly that wouldn't surprise me, its not like she knows what she's doing!"

"She did not break it in that match!"

"How'd you know? I'm sure she'd know when she broke it, then again we are talking about Candice so maybe not" Paul smirked

"Have you always been such an ass or is it just since Steph ditched you?" Tori snapped, she was fed up of him being so mean towards Candice.

Paul's face darkened and he scowled at his friend "I'll pretend you didn't say that!"

"Well I said it!" one thing that could be said for Tori was that she wasn't afraid of Paul, in fact she wasn't afraid of any of the guys and would tell them straight what she thought, it had earned her their respect over the years.

Paul bulked himself up to his full height and towered over Tori, it was an attempt to intimidate her, not that he thought for a second it would work, but he did it anyway.

"Back off Tor!"

Tori smirked, you'd think he'd learn by now that intimidation didn't work with her, "Or what? You'll give me an evil scary look?"

Paul sighed in frustration "Just drop the Steph thing!"

"Then stop being such a big bitch!"

"Fine! Can we go now or are you planning on chasing down Shane's piece of ass and harassing her about her nose?"

"Her name is Candice! And she didn't break her nose in that match, she's hiding something" Tori was about to go in the same direction Candice had gone when Paul rolled his eyes and let out and exasperated sigh, he grabbed Tori's arm and dragged her in the other direction

"Oh who cares!? Come on before Shawn sends out a search party, The show starts soon."


The show had ended and Paul was on a hunt for food before catering packed up and left, he would have gone during the show but Shawn and Tori had held him hostage in their dressing room just to be sure he didn't run into Shane or Candice on his way. But it looked like they'd picked the wrong time to hold him hostage, he'd just turned a corner when he spotted them at the end of the hall, but something didn't look right.

Shane had pressed Candice up against a wall , holding her arms and almost lifting her off the floor and she looked scared. Paul moved closer slowly, trying to make himself look smaller and inconspicuous as he inched nearer to the trying to pick up what they were saying.

"What did you say to her?"

"I….I told you…I…I said I did it in my match"

"Yeah well you'd better have been convincing, the last thing I need is that bitch Tori sniffing around. You know how much trouble she can cause?"

Candice nodded quickly in response.

"Just make sure you don't screw up or I'll break more than your nose next time" Shane warned before letting her go roughly.

"Get back to the hotel" he barked before walking away, never seeing Paul a few metres away.


Paul stayed where he was, leaning against a wall in plain sight and watched as Candice tried to regain her composure.

He'd never have seen that one coming, Shane was abusing Candice. Well he wasn't exactly surprised that Shane would abuse a woman but he was surprised that Candice would put up with it. She seemed the sort to stamp her foot if she didn't get what she wanted, true all she probably wanted was money which Shane has plenty of but getting your nose broken for it wasn't worth it.

Paul snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed Candice looking at him nervously,

"Umm you alright?" he asked awkwardly, he didn't like her but he wasn't that much of an ass that he'd just walk away. Although if you asked Tori….

"Yeah" Candice replied, trying to sound aloof.

"You sure cos I heard what mini McMahon said to you"

He wasn't surprised to see the look of panic spread across her face momentarily before she composed herself and replied

"Why wouldn't I be fine, he was only talking about my training"

"Sure he was" Paul replied sarcastically

"He was!"

"That's why you were acting scared of him"

"It's none of your business anyway"

"Well excuse me for trying to help"

"And how are you helping exactly?"

Paul was starting to get annoyed by her tone of voice, two minutes ago she was obviously petrified of Shane and now she was being bitchy to him.

"You know what, Forget it!"

"Okay then!" Candice replied before turning on her heel and rushing away.

"You probably asked for it anyway" Paul mumbled as he watched her leave.