Chapter 3
Reigns opened the hotel room door as Ambrose carefully helped a limping, grimacing Seth into the room. Setting him down carefully on the bed, Ambrose stood back. "I'm going to grab some food for us, what do you guys want?" Ambrose asked, trying to think of something helpful to do for his friends. Reigns shrugged, "I'll take anything, you know what I like."
Roman grabbed a towel and shut the bathroom door, oblivious to Dean's reply of whether or not he had ever actually paid attention to what his partner ate. Ambrose just sighed at the bathroom door before turning to the still form of his other best friend. "And you Seth?" he asked.
Seth answered with his eyes closed, exhausted and hurting from the night's events, "I'm good man, I don't want anything."
Ambrose tried to soften his voice, taking a page out of Seth's playbook when the youngest Shield member tried to reason with his two angry Shield brothers, "You've gotta eat something Seth. You can't take meds on an empty stomach."
Seth sighed, Dean was right of course. "Fine, soup."
Ambrose couldn't contain the snort that escaped as he replied, "Soup? Really? Since when does a member of The Shield eat soup?"
"Since his 'brothers' left him to fend for himself, and since he got punched in his stomach more times that he could keep track of tonight," Seth said with more edge in his voice than he had meant to let escape through the pain.
Ambrose raised his hands in surrender, "Geez, alright, sorry...soup it is."
Seth opened his mouth to apologize, to explain that it was the pain giving Dean attitude, not him, but his unvoiced apology was met with the slam of the hotel room door. Seth sighed again, regretting it instantly as his midsection lit up like it was on fire. Groaning, Seth tried to concentrate on something else, anything else that would take his mind off of the pain. He settled on trying to figure out how he would get out of his ring gear on his own, but before he could come up with a plan, he found himself drifting into a fitful sleep, lulled by the sound of Roman's shower.
Reigns felt guilty as he let the scorching water rush down his back. He felt guilty for letting his best friend get jumped. He even felt guilty about taking a shower instead of watching over Seth while Dean went on a food run. If he was really honest with himself, he was hiding in the shower. He couldn't stand the pained looked that he imagined on Seth's face as the smaller man squirmed in the hotel bed, trying to find the least painful resting position while Roman could only watch, his guilt mounting as he stood guard. Yeah, he was definitely avoiding that situation. Dean was right, if Roman really was the leader of The Shield now, he was doing a terrible job so far...
