Unhappily Tied
Shawn and Brian talked for hours, remembering stories from Shawn's classes.
"Hey, do you remember when you made Pauly get in the ring with you?" Brian asked, grin planted firmly on his face.
"Do I? Hell yes I do, he stiffened up like a board and I swear I've never seen that particular shade of red again." Shawn laughed.
"Can you blame him Shawn? Every one of us adored you. When you said jump, we asked how high. Had you told us to jump off a bridge, we woulda. Most of us probably still would. You were a God among men to us." Brian said. Shawn sighed.
"Even after all I'd been through? You, Garrison, and Pauly knew what happened to me..." Brian cut him off and put his arm around his old mentor.
"To us it made you seem all the stronger. You'd been through hell but you walked right out of the flames and kept on living. Most men would've died if that stuff had happened to them. But not you. You picked yourself back up and even managed to make a return when everyone told you it was impossible. For you there is no impossible. That still amazes me." Brian told him. Shawn smiled.
"You and Pauly were always able to pull me out of a slump. Speaking of Pauly, did he meet a good Dom yet?" Shawn asked. Brian nodded.
"He's with Randy." Brian grinned.
"Orton? You're kidding." Shawn said incredulously.
"Nope, Davey introduced them. Randy collared Paul last week. He was so happy." Brian informed him. As he said this, there was a knock on the door.
"That's probably them." Brian said as Dave went to answer it. It wasn't. Shawn's blood ran cold when he heard the words of greating.
"Hello Mark." Dave said. Shawn's eyes went wide and he scrambled as far from the door as he could.
"Shawn, what...?" then Brian remembered the story of how Hunter would share Shawn with a cruel and abusive Dom. That dom was Mark. Brian hissed at the big man and shielded Shawn from his view.
"Brian, behave yourself!" Dave admonished.
"He hurt Shawn!" Brian protested. Dave looked from Brian, to Shawn, and then to Mark.
"That was a long time ago." Mark rumbled. "and I must say I deeply regret it. I see however, that Shawn has still not gotten over what happened. Perhaps, with time, we can work it it out." without another word, he turned on his heel and left.
Shawn frowned. Mark had seemed so sincere. It was a complete opposite of the man Shawn had known so many years ago.
It made him nervous.
"Shawn are you alright?" Brian asked him. Shawn shook himself mentally and nodded.
"'m fine." he muttered.
"Let me apologize. I didn't know that Mark had hurt you too. I'm sorry Shawn." Dave said quietly, kneeling next to him and laying a comforting hand on his arm.
"I'm ok. Don't worry about it." Shawn said, his mind engaged elsewhere.
